


Too Much and Never Enough

by nowjkjkjklololol



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Akuroku, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Not your usual Coffee Shop AU, POV Third Person, Roxas and Ventus Are Siblings (Kingdom Hearts), Substance Abuse, aqua is the boss, axel paints, more tags as we go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28409742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowjkjkjklololol/pseuds/nowjkjkjklololol
Summary: Broken relationships and manipulation, kept secrets and people who have good intentions...mostly. When there’s no way out, how can you willingly drag someone you care about down with you?
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	1. Axel

The sound of their stupid, _loud_ alarm clock blaring through the formerly serene and peaceful darkness pulled Axel out of a deep sleep only a few hours after he’d crawled into bed. He groaned loudly, not wanting to put forth _any_ effort but also wanting to voice his displeasure as he rolled over grumpily, willing himself back to his dreams. A quiet huff preceded the alarm finally falling silent, and then the bed shifted as his boyfriend got up. It was absolutely _obscene_ that the man started his day so early...Axel was woken up to that sound every single morning at 5 on the dot. At least Saix wasn’t the sort of person to snooze the alarm; Axel briefly decided that he would have ended up permanently sleeping on the couch just before the soothing sound of the adjoining shower filled the room and sleep reclaimed him.

When Axel _did_ finally drag himself out of bed several hours later, after snoozing his own alarm no less than four times, he was dragging hard but determined to be productive. He was finishing up a piece he’d been working on for weeks and he knew _just_ what he wanted to do to finish it up. After a quick shower and a text to his best friend in a bid to score some free coffee, Axel threw on some clothes, grabbed his sketchbook, and headed out the door. It didn’t matter that Saix took their only car to work; the only place Axel ever went before the sun went down was to the Starbucks on the corner where his long-time best friend worked.

Axel trudged down the familiar route, noting all the usual sights en route from their chic apartment in the heart of the city to the coffee shop he found himself at usually once or twice a day at a minimum. He knew almost all the staff by name, had a ‘usual’ table and a ‘usual’ order, and got away with smoking at the _very_ edge of the patio under the awning when it rained despite that _technically_ not being allowed. The consistency and familiarity was nice, especially on mornings like this; he was mostly on autopilot as his thoughts swirled around the color combination he’d settled on for his painting. 

He drifted over to the register, frowning down at his phone and the text he’d just received from Saix sarcastically asking if he’d managed to get up yet, and slid Saix’s shiny black card across the counter towards Xion or Namine or whichever one of the peppy morning crew girls was taking orders today.

“Hey, throw an extra shot or two in there for me today, will ya?” he asked, typing out a snarky response about being able to take care of _himself,_ thank you very much, when a completely unfamiliar voice responding startled him into looking up.

“I, uh...sorry, I’m new, what’s the drink?” Axel found himself staring down into intensely blue eyes set in a familiar face. Or...almost familiar. Something was different, in all the _best_ ways, but Axel couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Like his eyes were a slightly different color, or his hair, or maybe Axel just wasn’t used to seeing him in the early morning sunlight with the morning crew.

“Shut the fuck up, Ven. What are you doing here so early? Did something happen to Aqua?” Axel laughed, but instead of laughing along with him, an almost pained expression flashed across the petite blonde’s face just as Aqua herself stepped out of the back.

“Axel!” she barked, making her way over and giving him a stern look. “Are you giving Roxas a hard time? Leave him alone, it’s his first day.” Her chiding was good natured, but Axel’s gaze flashed back to _Roxas_ in surprise. He would have kept arguing that they were messing with him except the man before him did _not_ look like he found this amusing in the slightest. His adorable face was turned away but did not hide the blush burning on his cheeks or the way the sharpie in his hand was now gripped tightly, but before Axel could figure out what to say, Roxas sucked in a breath and then looked back up at him with a forcefully cheerful expression.

“Younger brother, sorry to disappoint. But if you tell me your drink, I’ll try to have it down by next time.” His smile made Axel feel _worse,_ somehow, like it hurt to watch the kid trying so hard to disregard something that had upset him. Axel opened his mouth to apologize or something, but Aqua seemed to think he was gonna give Roxas more shit, because she swooped in, cup in hand.

“Get your marker ready. He wants an iced triple trenta unsweetened no cream light ice affagato cold brew iced coffee,” Aqua ticked off everything slowly with an eye on the blonde’s marker as he dutifully copied all the shorthand onto the cup. When he’d finished, he looked up and fixed the redhead with an honest yet absolutely devastating grin.

“Axel, right?” His chest tightened, and Axel found himself unable to deny how much he liked hearing his name coming from the blonde. He shook himself, trying for teasing so he didn’t leave the guy with such a bad impression.

“A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?” He winked and tapped two fingers to his temple, and Roxas laughed and handed the cup back to Aqua, who took it to the bar and got to work.

“Think so,” Roxas hummed, punching in all the modifiers on the computer screen before scooping up the credit card on the counter. “Besides, sounds like I’ll see you around.” Ah, so the kid was cute _and_ smart. He really needed to thank Aqua for her hiring skills. With a laugh and another wink, Axel accepted his card back and moved out of the way of the next person in line.

When he got to the other side of the bar, Axel leaned over the partition to make _sure_ Aqua caught the stare he was throwing at her. She rolled her eyes, tossed the last two shots of espresso into his drink, and reached for a lid.

“What?” she asked innocently, pushing the drink across the counter, “Ventus said his brother _really_ needed a job, and Zexion cut his hours way back because he got some internship, so I took him on. It’s not like I need to notify _you_ before I make staffing changes.” She poked him in the arm with a straw, directing him back to his own side of the divider as he gave her a ridiculous pout.

“Would have been _nice_ to have gotten a heads up, though,” he sulked playfully, scooping up his drink and his sketchbook as dramatically as possible. “See if I notify _you_ the next time I order us all pizza.” Aqua gasped, clutching the next cup to her chest with an expression that totally sold ‘abject horror.’ 

“No! I take it all back. I’ll let you fire Demyx when he gets here,” she hurriedly assured him, and Axel almost choked on his laughter at the wide-eyed, shocked expression he caught on Roxas’s face at the comment.

“Sounds good,” he answered haughtily, turning and going to claim his table. When he’d settled himself and opened to a blank page in his sketchbook, however, he felt his lips tug into a smile as Roxas’s grin filled his mind.

_”Axel, right?”_ The words drifted through his thoughts, and his pencil hit the paper without him even thinking about it. How was it that Roxas looked like the spitting image of his brother and yet was somehow so much more appealing? _”Axel, right?”_ He should be more worried about how those words kept bouncing around in his head...but then again, there was no harm in some playful banter. OR making sure the new guy has a decent first day at a new job. His hand distractedly moved around the page as his mind kept returning to the blonde behind the register, and he let his phone vibrate in his pocket, completely ignored, when the next few texts came in.


	2. Roxas

Roxas bit his lip as he once again looked up from wishing yet another customer a good day to have his eyes fall onto the _ridiculously_ attractive redhead who’d been camped out at a table not too far from the register, sketching away with a bemused smile and a half-full cup of coffee. No wonder everyone seemed to know him if he took so long to get through his drink, though Roxas was beginning to suspect the drink had been forgotten as all the ice had melted and he hadn’t seen Axel touch it in quite some time.

How exactly was he supposed to get through his shifts with someone who looked like _that_ just sitting there in front of him, in all his tall, red headed, tattooed glory? It should be a crime. Dear _lord_ the man was hot. In the small break after the rush that had been the morning shift, Roxas found himself standing there just _staring,_ and of course, that was exactly when Axel looked up from his work and right into Roxas’s eyes. 

Death would have been kinder. Roxas jumped at being caught checking him out and scrambled to find something to pretend to be busy with, but literally the only thing that he’d been given to work with was a sharpie and he didn’t know enough about anything else to be able to proactively help in any way. He ended up dropping his sharpie and then almost flinging himself down behind the counter to retrieve it. 

Smooth, so smooth...could he just hide out down here without getting fired? Probably not, he supposed, and got to his feet with a sigh, only to find himself almost nose to nose with a now smugly smirking Axel, who was leaning with his elbows on the counter, chin in hands as he waited for Roxas. The blonde managed _not_ to yelp in surprise, but his heart skipped a beat or two before he eased himself back a step so he didn’t do something stupid like lean in to catch more of the subtly spicy, smoky smell that surrounded the man.

“Whatcha doing?” Axel asked, though that smile told Roxas he was _completely_ busted. He didn’t have to admit to it, in any case.

“Contemplating my life choices. Why are there _so many people_ who can’t get through the day without stopping in for coffee?” One of Axel’s eyebrows quirked up, and his smirk grew larger.

“Maybe they’re just coming in to chat up the cute baristas. Ever think about that?” Breathe, Roxas. He didn’t even know if he was allowed to hit on the customers. Did he have to wait for his break? Did Axel even mean him? Roxas made a show of looking over to the bar, where Aqua was chatting animatedly with a pair of girls at the handoff plane.

“I mean, I can sorta see it, if Aqua’s your type,” he hummed thoughtfully, before letting his eyes slide back over to Axel appraisingly. “I dunno, I wouldn’t go out of my way every day and blow a ton of money just to chat with someone. I’d want them to _want_ to talk to me.” Something in Axel’s gaze sharpened, and Roxas noticed he didn’t so much as glance towards Aqua...or away from Roxas at all. Instead, emerald green eyes trailed over him casually before returning to meet his.

“Aqua definitely isn’t my type, but hey, to each their own, right?” He stood upright again, tapping his knuckles lightly on the counter. “Lucky for me, the cute baristas are just an added bonus. As is the conversation.” Roxas was floundering to think of something to say that would still be appropriate for a staff member to say to a customer while Axel’s smirk grew more and more pointed, when the door opened and Roxas gratefully tore his eyes away from the lanky redhead to greet whoever had just entered. However, the person beat him to it as they rushed inside.

“Aqua I’m sorry I’m late, I ripped my jeans and there is no _way_ I could fit into Zexion’s so I had to run back by my place.” The man hustling his way towards the back room had sandy-blonde hair styled into something between a mullet and a mohawk and an apron under his arm; clearly, he was a coworker. Aqua rolled her eyes, but it was Axel who spoke, still standing at the register across from Roxas.

“Demyx, you’re fired,” he deadpanned, and Roxas’s eyes flew to the newcomer to gauge his reaction. Was Axel serious? They’d been joking earlier, right? Apparently this wasn’t concerning to ‘Demyx’ in the slightest; he spun in place on his toes and beelined for the door again with a flippant wave.

“Sweet! Free afternoon!” he laughed, completely carefree, until Axel caught him with an arm around his shoulders and spun him back towards the back.

“Sorry, still gotta work. You’re just fired in _spirit,_ ” Axel said with mock sympathy, and Demyx pouted his way to go clock in.

“Well, that’s no fun. Do I at least get to snap back at bitchy customers?” he asked from the back room, and Aqua threw a severe look his direction.

“Not unless you wanna be real-fired,” she warned, and Demyx threw on his apron with an exaggerated sigh.

“Okay _fine,_ you guys are no fun,” he huffed, messing with his name tag as he distractedly wandered over to where they were. “Then can we talk about how you got Ven up here before noon? Dude, what did she threaten you...with...you’re not Ven.” Demyx had looked up at Roxas as he spoke and then did a double take, head tilting in his confusion. Aqua rolled her eyes again and Axel’s hand flew to cover his mouth suspiciously, like he was hiding his laughter, but Roxas had to work harder to find this all amusing.

He _hated_ being confused for Ventus. Hated being compared to him, hated how similar they looked, hated always being in his brother’s shadow. He hated how he’d had people come up to him thinking he was Ven all his life. It didn’t help that Ven was friends with _everyone,_ while Roxas had only spent time with a little group of friends and once they’d all parted ways at the end of high school, he’d mostly stayed by himself. But he also didn’t wanna unleash his life-long complex on people he was gonna have to be around for a while, so he forced a laugh.

“Hah! No, Ventus can’t get up in the morning to save his life. I’m Roxas.” He stuck out his hand and then _immediately_ regretted it when Demyx took it, but instead of shaking it used it to pull him into a bro hug.

“No kidding, that’s awesome! I’m Demyx,” he announced proudly, releasing him and then returning to fiddling with his name tag. That instantly made Roxas warm up to him, at least enough to make up for the hug; he didn’t even ask how he and Ventus were related. Without being able to help himself, Roxas let his eyes rove back to Axel, who seemed to be studying the two of them. Huh. But then Aqua was walking over from the bar, gently pushing Demyx towards it as she passed him.

“You get to work, Roxas is gonna stay on register until I’m back from my lunch, and then he can train on bar with you before he leaves for the day. Sound good, you two?” Roxas nodded quickly and Demyx hummed something that sounded like acceptance before Aqua left them, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door. The second she was gone, Demyx dropped the name tag and turned towards Roxas and Axel with an eager grin. 

“Ok, so get this. Zexion was closing last night, right? Well, he had some project he’s been working on for months, and he had some ‘data collecting’ or whatever he had to do, but it was right in the middle of his shift. So we had planned on me doing it, but Tifa called way earlier and said they had an opening to play and I said yeah, totally forgetting about Zexion’s thing.” He paused, and Roxas peeked up at Axel to see what his reaction was, but the redhead was just nodding along as if everything Demyx was saying made sense. In either case, Demyx didn’t seem concerned enough to explain the pieces of the story Roxas didn’t get, so Roxas just kept listening and stealing brief glances at Axel, who was still lounging around on the other side of the counter.

“So I’m mid-set and my phone is going off, and I check between songs and see Zexion’s been calling me and then I remembered- oh shit, I’m supposed to be on campus! I literally told Tifa from the mic that I’d be right back and then booked it, showed up to his lab all sweaty with my guitar, and that creepy professor of his tore me a new one, made me leave my guitar and wear a _lab coat_ because ripped jeans ‘didn’t meet lab safety requirements’ or whatever bullshit. Then I had to call Zexy back and have him walk me through what to do and then _he_ chewed me out, too!” Demyx made a face akin to a scolded puppy, and Roxas snorted before he could stop himself. Axel kept a straight face, nodding sagely and apparently expecting more of the story, but Roxas could see the laughter sparkling in his eyes. As Demyx continued, Roxas decided that the two of them must be good friends...and that Demyx seemed genuinely nice, if a little scatterbrained.

“So I finish _that_ up and head back to the bar, and then Tifa said it was cool but I should have given her a better heads up than that, and made me buy my own drinks for the rest of the gig. Can you _believe_ it?” Demyx whined, draping himself pathetically against the ice machine. “No one appreciates how hard I work.”

“Dem, you’re not working _at all,_ ” Axel pointed out before Roxas could reply, and at that a giggle slipped out of him before he could stop it. Demyx pouted hard at both of them.

“Hey, no fair, you guys can’t team up on me like this. _Someone_ needs to be sympathetic here.” Roxas decided he liked Demyx as he fought off more laughter; the guy was laid-back and seemed kindhearted, just as much as he was ridiculous. 

“Too late. Roxy and I are partners already, aren’t we?” Axel asked amidst chuckles, and Roxas felt his heart beat stutter. Did his crush just call them partners? _Wait,_ Roxas, he was not a crush. Yet. Oh god. _Roxy?_

“Uh, yeah. Exactly,” he managed as casually as he could, smiling and trying to get back into their banter. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who’d been caught off guard by the comment. Demyx’s eyes skipped from Axel to Roxas and back before he raised an eyebrow at the taller man.

“ _Partners,_ Axel?” he asked, but his tone wasn’t what Roxas expected at all...he sounded almost like he was admonishing the redhead. Axel wasn’t fazed in the slightest.

“You heard him. We’re a team. He even knew you were getting fired before you got here.” He crossed his arms and mirrored Demyx’s lifted brow with one of his own almost challengingly. “Should I hop behind the counter and show him what to do?”

Roxas almost choked. Okay, his mind was clearly in the gutter. Then Demyx shrugged, giving Axel a significant look despite his light laugh.

“Whatever, man. I don’t mind, but if Aqua or anyone _else_ catches you, I bet _you’re_ gonna be fired, too.” With that he grabbed a cup from the stacks and went to work at the bar; since there were still no new customers, Roxas assumed it was for personal consumption. It was a bucket of cold water on Axel’s threat.

“Sheesh, sic _Aqua_ on me...” he muttered grumpily, but threw a quick grin at Roxas before wandering back to his table and returning to his seat. Roxas was staring after him, overwhelmed and trying to regain his composure, so he saw it when Axel picked up his pencil to resume drawing only to glance right back over to Roxas. The shorter blonde blushed; right back to where this had all started. Quickly he turned to Demyx.

“So...should I be doing anything?” he asked, stepping closer so he could watch what Demyx was doing. He supposed if nothing else he could watch and try to remember what he was doing to work the espresso machine. Demyx shrugged again, pushing some buttons that made it start to pour streams of coffee into shot glasses.

“Nah, not until Aqua comes back.” He took the shot glasses over to a blender and dumped them in, then began putting in a bunch of syrups, scoops of powders, ice, and some other things in as well; Roxas quickly couldn’t keep up. Then in a clearly practiced to death move, he threw the lid on the pitcher and the pitcher in the machine almost at the same time as he hit the button to start it. “Unless someone comes in, consider Aqua’s lunch a bonus break, just one you have to take on the clock.” Roxas shrugged, glanced at Axel again without being able to help himself, and then began doodling aimlessly on a drained gift card beside the til. 

Customers drifted in sporadically, and Aqua eventually returned, after which Roxas _really_ began his training beyond the register. An hour and a half was spent standing behind and beside Demyx’s position at the bar, listening to halfhearted instructions as Demyx far too rapidly crafted drinks only for Aqua to scold him, more thoroughly explain what to do, and then insist Demyx remake the drink and walk Roxas through it. After that happened a few times, Axel snuck over to the handoff counter and offered to ‘sample’ all of the drinks Demyx, and then Roxas, made. Axel drifted outside to have a cigarette after that, and Aqua sent Roxas out into the cafe with a rag to wipe down the tables before he left.

He was halfway through, all thoughts focused on the task at hand, when he hit Axel’s unoccupied table. The redhead was still outside, and all his things lay undisturbed where he’d left them; including his now bone-dry cup from earlier. Roxas felt his curiosity rise as his eyes shifted to the open sketchbook just to the side of it. It was his _job_ to pick up that cup and toss it...and if he happened to glance down to see what kind of art Axel was into, that would be completely unavoidable. Roxas had a million guesses. Was he a graffiti artist? Comic book illustrator? Anime fan? Maybe he did some kind of design work and it was technical drawings? He scooped up the cup and glanced down at the page.

It was _him._ The sketch was a beautifully rendered drawing of Roxas, from the viewpoint of Axel’s seat. The Roxas on the page was looking to someone standing with their back to the viewer, a slight crease between his eyebrows as he held his marker poised above a cup. The counter, register, and surrounding store had been left as a rough sketch, but Roxas himself was detailed down to the stitching on his apron. It was absolutely _incredible._

“The hair was the hardest part. All those cute little spikes all over the place.” _Shit._ whirled around to find Axel standing behind him, one hand on his hip and tapping his chin thoughtfully with a finger on the other, studying his own drawing over Roxas’s shoulder. His voice came out almost clinical as he critiqued himself, but his eyes shone with mischief. “Overall, though, I think I really captured that ‘first day’ stress.” He then looked right at the much shorter blonde, and Roxas swallowed hard. “You weren’t supposed to see it til I was done, though.” If there were ever a time Roxas wished he could just open up a portal and disappear through it, it was right then. He was _hella_ busted here.

“I, uh...S-sorry! I’m sorry, I was just gonna...” Roxas trailed off, weakly lifting the empty cup destined for the bin. The redhead only managed to hold his disapproving look for another heartbeat before a smile bloomed on his lips.

“I’ll only forgive you if you tell me what you think of it,” he said, stealing his empty cup back and drifting towards the next table, silently indicating Roxas get on with what he was doing as well. The blonde followed dutifully behind him and wiped down the surface as he tried to put words together in a way that didn’t make it _blatantly_ obvious he was already far too interested in everything to do with the man.

“It’s incredible, you’re really good,” he muttered, then winced at himself. Wow, way to sound honest. Axel seemed to understand.

“Really?” he purred, preening at the praise. Roxas quickly moved on to the next table, trying not to stare at the absolute glory that was a satisfied Axel.

“Yeah, man, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m honestly completely terrible at anything like that.” Was he downplaying what Axel was into? Oh god why was he so bad at this right now? He peeked up at Axel as he moved on, only to notice the man looking at him thoughtfully.

“Ever tried to paint?” Axel asked, weaving his way through chairs when Roxas continued on through the cafe. A bark of laughter left Roxas before he could help it.

“Maybe in elementary school,” he admitted, feeling sheepish. Axel put on a comically hurt expression, clutching at his chest where his heart would be.

“So quick to dismiss my true passion,” he whined, and Roxas backpedaled so hard he sounded desperate to explain even to his own ears.

“Not to say I don’t like paintings themselves,” he corrected hurriedly, “just that I can’t do it myself. You gotta be super talented for that kind of thing.” Axel laughed and stepped aside to dispose of his trash as they passed a bin, and Roxas headed for the last corner of tables.

“All you gotta do is try, Roxy. Do you know there are artists who cover themselves in paint and roll around on the canvas?” Roxas paused and raised his eyebrows at the taller man, who’d draped himself into one of the armchairs by the window.

“You’re joking,” he accused, which made Axel chuckle with a broad smirk. 

“Thats’s not the only thing people get up to dipped in paint,” he retorted, voice heavy with implications, and before he could prevent it, the mental image of _Axel,_ naked and covered in paint and grinning wolfishly, flashed in his head. _Oh, good lord._ Roxas quickly spun to take care of the last tables. He couldn’t get words out to respond, but when he finally finished and turned back to try, he almost bumped into Axel’s chest. The lanky man had snuck up behind him, and was _too_ close now with the half-step Roxas had taken.

“You should check out _my_ work sometime,” he purred, and Roxas almost burst into flame. _Did_ he burst into flame? Roxas could have and not even registered it with the amount of physical tension that comment built in him. Could he get fired for kissing a customer in the middle of the cafe? It might be worth it...but before he did something stupid, Axel winked. “Mines a little more traditional than all that, though.” Roxas needed a minute to deal with the chaos of his emotions. Tables were done, so he forced as normal of a smile as he could muster and gestured with a thumb over his shoulder.

“Yeah, lemme go clock out real quick.” Roxas all but fled from the man, rushing towards the back where Aqua was counting inventory with a clipboard in hand. 

“All done?” She looked up with a kind smile which turned to concern when she saw how frazzled he looked. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh yeah,” he assured her, rubbing at his face with an open hand. “I just...I’ll get the hang of things, no worries.” He smiles openly, hoping she understood how grateful he was for the job and was under no circumstances about to throw it away by making a pass at a relative stranger. Not on his first day. That would be ridiculous. He needed to get a grip. Aqua beamed and reassured him he was doing great, then walked him through clocking out, and after that Roxas was free to go. He grabbed his longboard from where he’d stashed it beside the desk, took a steadying breath, and headed back out into the cafe.

The first thing that he saw, of course, was Axel leaned up against the handoff plane and talking to Demyx, both so focused on one another that they didn’t notice him approaching from behind the counter. Then he caught a bit of what they were saying.

“...and you _know_ how I feel about Saix, man, it’s why I don’t come over anymore,” Demyx was saying, and he sounded almost argumentative. Roxas saw Axel roll his green eyes _hard_ while letting out a huff of air.

“Why are we even talking about Saix, exactly? I don’t see why you’re even-“ Demyx clearly wasn’t having that; he cut off Axel with a clenched fist thudding down onto the countertop.

“You _know,_ Axel, don’t play dumb! The kid’s gonna end up hurt because you-“ Axel finally caught sight of Roxas over Demyx’s shoulder and straightened up with an easy smile.

“Hey Roxy! All done?” he asked loudly, verbally trampling Demyx to keep him from finishing his thought. Roxas put on a smile of his own, though inside his head he was in turmoil. What was that? It sounded like that last part might have been about him, but the rest of it didn’t really make sense...maybe he was just being paranoid. He nodded at Axel, who pushed off from the counter to amble over. “Longboard, huh?” Hie eyes fell on the wheels in his hand, and Roxas laughed awkwardly.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’ve spent all my painting time on instead.” Axel snorted with humor and fished in his pocket, pulling forth a pack of cigarettes.

“Mind if I walk you out?” he asked, wiggling the little cardboard box in the air, and Roxas _finally_ had a cocky response to give, as he was gonna have to stop for a pack on his way home.

“Only if you’re sharing,” he commanded, and Axel nodded solemnly.

“Oh, of course. It would be rude not to,” the redhead purred, leading the way toward the doors. “We’ll talk in a bit, Dem.” Roxas turned to say goodbye as well only to end up giving a quick, weak wave as he quailed under the glare Demyx was shooting into Axel’s back. Then he was following Axel out of the Starbucks and onto the patio.


	3. Axel

Axel tapped two cigarettes out of his box and put them to his lips, lighting both before passing one of them over to Roxas. Ah, shit, the way the tiny blonde blushed as he accepted it and put it between his own lips was fucking cute. And the idea of those lips touching places where his had just left was making him feel...like maybe Demyx had a point.

Sure, he talked to _everyone_ in a way that could probably be construed as flirting, but...try as he might to lie to himself, he knew this was different. He’d be drooling and tripping over himself to get this guy’s attention if it weren’t for...how things were. They stood there together for a quiet moment while Axel mulled over his thoughts, trying not to sigh defeatedly. He _knew_ Demyx was right. He needed to reign himself in. Accept it. 

“So what kind of painting do _you_ do?” Roxas asked, drawing Axel’s attention back onto him. Big blue eyes were looking up at him, waiting for a response, but _why_ did that expression on his face make Axel wanna lean down and kiss it off him? He never had such a hard time remembering he wasn’t single as he did in the presence of this relative stranger.

“Yeah, it’s...” Axel murmured, pulling out his phone. He was gonna bring up some of his paintings to show Roxas, but he was distracted by the text notifications on his lock screen. Fuck. Saix was in a pissy mood, and the shit he’d sent in response to Axel’s earlier snark already looked brutal even without clicking into the messages. Axel cleared his throat, bypassing his texts to open up his artist website and click into his gallery. “Here.” He offered his phone to Roxas, who took it carefully and began to look at the images.

“Holy shit! These are dope,” Roxas breathed, and pride briefly flooded through Axel. It was nice, if not seldom, that he got to see someone looking at his work in amazement, _praising_ it. And here was Roxas clutching at his phone, zooming in and scrolling through with apparent fascination. 

They talked for a few minutes as Roxas browsed through, about what he used and how he came up with his ideas and how long his paintings took, and it was going _so fucking well_ until the ding of a notification sent his heart stuttering to a stop as Roxas’s eyes grew huge.

“Uh, here,” Roxas said before shoving the phone back at him. “You got a...I need to head home, anyways.” He backed a step away after Axel accepted the device, but hesitated when the taller man didn’t look away from him once. “It was really cool to meet you. And thanks for the cigarette. I’ll see you around, okay?” Axel nodded blankly, a feeling of dread growing in the pit of his stomach. 

“Hey, wait,” he couldn’t stop himself, even though the look on Roxas’s face wasn’t helping his growing anxiety. “You gonna be in tomorrow?” A small smile crept onto the blonde’s lips.

“Yeah. Same time,” he answered, and Axel smiled lazily.

“See you then, Roxy,” he hummed, then leaned on the rail of the patio and watched as Roxas hopped down the steps, dropped his board onto the sidewalk, and then headed off. When those eyes looked back, he wiggled his fingers in a little wave and beamed hugely enough that Roxas _had_ to see it even with the distance between them.

As soon as the petite blonde was gone, Axel’s mood sank like a stone. What kind of message had he received that woulda scared the guy off like that? He had a sneaking suspicion he knew _exactly_ who had sent it. That suspicion was validated as soon as he clicked into the texts from Saix.

Moon Bae: I’m surprised you _were_ able to, given how late it was when you came to bed. Incoherently drunk or whatever else, I might add.  
Moon Bae: and now you are choosing not to answer my messages. Childish. So very _you._  
Moon Bae: but I can see from my bank alerts that you’re just fine spending my money.

And then the last one, the one that Roxas had obviously seen the banner for;

Moon Bae: you are quite the disappointment.

The fuck. What the actual fuck, Saix. Internally seething, Axel lit another cigarette and then typed out a pissy reply, which quickly turned into a fight.

You: I was working on something, you dick.   
Moon Bae: oh really? I didn’t know you’d managed to find employment. How wonderful.  
You: Ha. Fucking. Ha. I was drawing.   
Moon Bae: ah. You mean wasting your time on a glorified hobby that will do us no good in the long term while you leech off my bank account, then?  
You: are you serious? What’s your fucking problem?   
Moon Bae: we can discuss this when I get home. Right now, I have a meeting to attend at a job that keeps a roof over our heads and funds all of your various...hobbies.

Axel shoved his phone into his pocket furiously, taking a massive drag off his cigarette as he did. Fuck Saix. He didn’t need to be treated like shit for having a life. Fuck, he needed something in his system. He breathed deeply and puffed out a huge cloud of smoke, briefly imagining his anger manifesting in flames like some great dragon, and then threw the cigarette down and rubbed it out with the toe of his converse. It was time to go home and get some Molly and Mary Jane and maybe whiskey to throw back while he painted. Get some of the fire out of his veins and onto the canvas before Saix got home and he could rage against the man himself.

When he stepped back inside to grab his stuff, he was confronted by Demyx, who’d clearly been restocking at the condiment bar until Axel’s return. Before his idiot friend could open his mouth and earn himself a verbal wound, Axel shouldered past him.

“Leave it. Text me, I gotta get out of here.” That started Demyx into momentary silence as he watched Axel hastily grab his shit with wide eyes and a confused frown.

“Did Roxas-?” Demyx began, but Axel stomped back past him towards the door, only managing to snarl out ‘Saix’ before he ejected himself from the cafe and headed back towards home.

Two hours later and Axel was more than pleasantly high and buzzed and splattered in paint when his phone began buzzing in his pocket. He wiped his hands on a rag hanging out of his back pocket and then tugged it out, only to see an unknown number had texted ‘what the fuck’ and nothing else. Interesting.

You: how did you get this number?  
Unknown Sender: Demyx.

_Shit._

You: who is this?  
Unknown Sender: Ventus.

_Fuck._ So Demyx probably spilled about Axel talking to Roxas, and Ven wanted to hear from a source what was really going on. Axel didn’t want to give away too much, on the off-chance that Demyx hadn’t included his own commentary during his retelling, except...

You: whos the closing shift?  
Unknown Sender: Vani. Start talking.

_Ohhhh fuck._ Vanitas was a scary fucker, and even at the best of times, he was the kinda guy who kept to the shadows unless he came out to fuck you up in some way, and that was if he considered you a _friend._ For whatever reason, though, he had a huge soft spot for Mr. Sunshine Boy Ventus. That was fine most of the time, especially since most of the other employees asked not to work with him and Ventus happily accepted all the closing shifts since he didn’t like to wake up early, but it could be detrimental to one’s health to upset Ventus when Vanitas might find out. 

He hadn’t seen it for himself, but Demyx liked to tell everyone about the time some bitch customer came in and started screaming at Ventus about her order being wrong and made him cry and Vanitas appeared and had the woman apologizing and fleeing without having to do more than look at her. So if Vanitas heard Ventus whining about Axel scaring his brother on his first day...

You: I don’t know what Demyx told you but he’s a stupid idiot  
You: have you talked to Roxas?  
Unknown Sender: HE texted ME asking about you, which made me ask Demyx why he would be asking about you.

Oh...Roxas was asking about him? Warmth flooded him suddenly at the thought of Roxas getting home and thinking about him enough to ask Venty about him...but he was going to blame that warm, fuzzy, altogether too nice feeling on the ecstasy. Still...

You: what was he asking about?  
Unknown Sender: REALLY AXEL  
Unknown Sender: really.  
You: what? he was cool, we’re gonna be friends  
Unknown Sender: oh yeah? Tell me it’s not gonna end with him crying to me all fucked up over it.  
Unknown Sender: tell me you’ll let Vanitas do whatever he wants if you do something out of line here

Well, _that_ was definitely an intimidating suggestion...but whatever. He _wasn’t_ gonna do anything out of line. He had a boyfriend, even if said boyfriend was a _total. Fucking. Dick._

You: sure, sure, Venty. If I fuck up, you have my permission to sic Vanitas on me. We good?  
Unknown Sender: yeah fine. Keeping an eye on you, tho. Roxas is my baby brother.  
You: yeah, so...what did he wanna know about me?   
Unknown Sender: BYE

Axel saved the number into his phone before stuffing it back into his pocket. Might be good to hang on to. He was just about to pick up his brush when it buzzed again. What was it _now_? He huffed as he pulled it out again.

Demyx: are you gonna be here tomorrow? 

He let that one stay on read, returning the device to his pocket and reclaiming his paintbrush. That shithead. He was the best friend, but also the _worst._

Vibrant tones of red were finally again being applied to the canvas, and Axel was just beginning to lose himself in the way he was balancing them against the steel grey and blue tones he’d set earlier when the distant sound of the garage door rumbling as it opened caught his attention. Well, as least he didn’t need to stop working for _this_ distraction. Still...the brush in his hand was suddenly flowing much less hesitantly than before as his rage and nerves bubbled back up to the surface. 

The sound of the door from the garage opening and then closing firmly made him flinch, but he didn’t stop what he was doing. It was finally shaping up; fire against steel, matching the anger burning inside him.

“Ah, right where I imagined I’d find you. Still wasting time, I see?” Saix strolled into the room, picking a fight as soon as he saw the redhead. Of course.

“What the fuck is your problem today?” Axel snarled, still refusing to look away from his canvas. “Didn’t get the chance to suck you boss’s dick or something?” He had to work to keep the vindictive smirk off his face; the way Saix rolled over for his boss had long been a sore subject between them. He couldn’t see Saix’s expression, but he could imagine the glare that was probably being aimed at him.

“Maybe I’m getting frustrated by how little it is you contribute, or even _do_.” As he passed by, Saix’s foot nudged one of the legs of the easel, and the entire painting wobbled. It was lucky Axel had been so mad at the comment that he’d lifted his brush, or the painting might have just been ruined.

“Are you fucking _kidding_?” the redhead spat, finally giving in to shoot a look of pure venom at his boyfriend. “Where is all this shit coming from?” Saix set his briefcase on the counter and turned to look down his nose at Axel even as he loosened the tie around his neck.

“You’re up or out all night, which affects my sleep for my _real_ work. All you do is spend my money, smoke or snort or drink yourself into oblivion, and _this,_ ” Saix waved his hand dismissively at the paints, easel, and tarped area which Axel used as his workspace. “You spend all your time in your own head or with others, and you’re giving me nothing. I’m not sure if I should be jealous or if you’ve given up on this entirely.” His arms crossed, but Axel was about done with his usual shit. Maybe this time he’d call Saix on his shit though. He _could_ leave. Demyx would probably let him crash out on his couch for a while. Fueled by the courage and convenient lapses in memory the cocktail of substances in his system gave him, he squared his shoulders and glared right back. He could fight back. Why didn’t he stand up for himself more?

“Maybe we _should_ give up on things. It doesn’t exactly seem like you’re real happy to have me around,” he huffed, watching Saix’s eyes narrow in response. “Maybe if I’m such a _disappointment_ I should get out of your way.” He didn’t really know what he was expecting the blue-haired man’s response to be, but it definitely wasn’t for him to take a step closer as his expression hardened.

“Are you involving yourself with someone else behind my back?” he asked, voice _too_ cold and _too_ calm. As he took another step forward, Axel subconsciously took one back. “Is that where your selfish indifference is coming from?”

“What? No, I- that’s not what-“ Saix didn’t wait for him to finish. 

“So you despise my presence enough to throw aside my feelings and abandon the comfortable life I provide for you?” He took another step forward while Axel was frozen, thoughts swirling in confusion. He _was_ being selfish, wasn’t he; Saix gave him so much...and he really had nothing to claim to bring. 

“No, I- _you’re_ the one who started-“ Axel tried to regain some ground, but Saix cut him off again with a snarl.

“I did no such thing! You started your attitude with me the moment you dragged yourself out of bed, and that was only because _I_ messaged _you_ to check on you.” Was that right? He _was _right, wasn’t he...was Axel way in the wrong here?__

__“Okay, sure, but you don’t have to be such a bitch about it. You’re trashing like, everything about me. Maybe we’d both be better off if I-“ Once more, Saix began talking right over him, a venomous smirk sliding onto his lips._ _

__“If you _what,_ Axel? Have you thought at all about what you’re about to say?” The redhead paused; well, he could rely on _someone_ to let him couch surf for a while. He could get a job. And then...but as if he could hear the thoughts rattling around in Axel’s head, Saix continued. “Even if you found somewhere to stay rent- and bills-free for an indeterminate length of time, then what? Because I know you, Axel, and your list of expenses goes quite a great deal beyond just room and board.”_ _

__Axel felt himself pale at the implication behind those words. Fuck. Okay, he could probably bum a few beers and a joint from Demyx, but there was no was he could borrow enough in the long term to cover _everything_ he’d need from a guy who worked at Starbucks. Even if he got a job...what was he gonna do, go without his phone and be _sober_ until he received his first paycheck? Which would need to go at least in part to whoever was letting him crash with them...he didn’t even have a _car_..._ _

__Taking advantage of the redhead’s rising anxieties, Saix took the final step he needed to bring them almost chest to chest, face aggressively invading Axel’s personal space in a move designed to be intimidating. The scars crossing at the bridge of his nose accentuated the scowl he wore._ _

__“If you throw our relationship and my generosity in my face like this again, rest assured I’ll let you deal with the consequences of your decisions.” Axel could feel Saix’s breath on his face, and his instincts were shouting at him to shove the man away from him, but his last shred of self-preservation held out. He only had to hold that position for a few tense beats before Saix’s expression softened minutely. “We used to be so happy, didn’t we? I want us to be more like that again, I can’t stand when you ignore me and fight me like this.” Suddenly, Axel felt one of the hands that had been a fist only a second ago grab onto his hip. “And besides...I was being unfair. You _do_ provide for me in some ways, don’t you?” And then his lips closed the distance between them to press firmly against Axel’s._ _

__The redhead froze completely, brain reeling from the shift. He hated when Saix got like this. Sure, he definitely considered himself a sexually open person, but...nothing about _this_ was sexy. Well, at least not to _him,_ but the way Saix’s mouth was moving against his was insistent, a silent demand. Then, not so silently as he drew back slightly to give Axel a pointed look._ _

__“I’m sure you can show your appreciation better than _that,_ can’t you? Or are you pettily trying to prove me wrong about you having value here?” It was a slap to the face, but it also made him feel a little guilty. Saix wasn’t exactly _wrong._ The obligation sat heavy in his chest, but he forced a smirk and a casual stance._ _

__“Nah, just lemme grab a smoke real quick, okay? I’ll meet you in bed.” That appeared to be good enough for Saix, who gave him one more throat-swabbing kiss, smirked, and then sauntered off towards the room they shared. Repressing the urge to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand, Axel headed straight for the decorative jar he stashed his pills and paraphernalia in. He could get through this with a little more X and a few minutes to get in the right frame of mind. With the speed and efficiency borne from a _lot_ of practice, he had a tablet crushed and snorted in record time, and was quickly headed out to the back patio. He could already feel it humming through his system by the time he was taking his first drag. Ahh, yes. _ _

__He could feel the cool breeze tingling against his too-warm skin and in every hair on his body. He could feel the smoke curling soothingly through his veins. Everything was fine, he was fine. Saix _loved_ him, even if he had a rather abrasive way of showing it. And he loved the way Saix knew how to take care of him. The desire to feel someone touching him grew as he powered through the cigarette, and then he quickly followed the path Saix had taken back towards their room._ _

__Two hours later, Axel found himself laying flat on his back in bed, wide awake and jittery as he listened to Saix snore lightly on the other side. _Fuck._ There was no way he was gonna be able to sleep any time soon. He didn’t have the right energy to paint, and staying in this spot was making his skin crawl. He needed to do _something._ He sat up, grabbing his clothes off the floor and yanking them on. He didn’t feel like partying right now, and he didn’t want to have someone come pick him up, anyways. Shoes, phone, wallet, and keys were all still by the front door...it was a sign. A sign to _leave_ and get some air. Maybe a coffee and some space would get him back in the mood to paint. He stumbled down the hall and got ready to head out._ _


	4. Ventus

“What are _you_ doing up here?” The blonde bit out the words with as much irritation as he was able to while still standing behind the register as an employee, but apparently it didn’t matter at all.

“Venty! Don’t pretend you don’t love me,” the redhead crooned, swerving around table and chairs to make his way to the counter. Ventus saw Vanitas lean around the door of the refrigerator in the back with a hard look. “I need the coffee and company only this place can provide.” It was only an hour til closing so there was only one table occupied by a kid with his headphones in and a _very_ occasional trickle of customers, so he did nothing more than roll his eyes when Axel draped himself limply over the register to look at him beseechingly.

“What do you want?” he asked flatly, only to get a pouty huff out of the redhead.

“Why is everyone so mean today? Everyone’s been acting like they don’t want me around,” he whined, and Ventus actually had to put a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter when Vanitas immediately retorted.

“That’s because we don’t!” he called flatly from the back. Axel put on a tragically offended look before it quickly shifted into one that made Ventus pretty sure the next words out of his mouth were gonna make someone want to punch him.

“Y’know who _didn’t_ act like they wanted me to get lost?” he purred, lifting his head fractionally to give Ventus a cocky look. “That guy who wears your face better than you.” With practically no warning, he suddenly felt Vanitas’s presence behind him.

“Watch yourself,” Vanitas breathed out on a growl, and Ventus could tell from the way Axel jerked to standing upright that his expression must have been terrifying. Just as quickly as he’d arrived, he turned to go, adding, “Besides, that’s only because he doesn’t know you.” Ventus was halfway through shooting a smug look at their ‘customer’ when he noticed something that threw him off so hard that even Vanitas paused his departure. Instead of laughing it off or coming back with a snarky retort or even dismissing them entirely, Axel...looked like he was on the verge of tears. He blinked and it was gone, but...he hadn’t been mistaken. And now that he’d noticed, he didn’t know how he hadn’t seen that something was wrong right from the start. 

Axel was not himself. The dilated pupils and the poor motor control were not really that concerning, as he was pretty sure Axel was on _something_ more often than not, but his whole demeanor was...off. He couldn’t put words to it, but he’d always been pretty good at reading a person’s heart, and Axel’s was all wrong.

“Yeah, well. I’ll enjoy it until that day inevitably comes,” he sighed dramatically, but his response was delayed enough that Ven could tell the bluff was forced halfheartedly. What had _happened_? Vanitas had come up beside him like a shadow and neither said nor did anything at all but stand there, yet _Ventus_ could see his concern in the way his stare was less surly and his mouth stayed closed. Ventus didn’t know what to say, though. Should he ask what was wrong? Was that too invasive for such a public space and with _employees_? Were they friends?

“What do you want to drink?” Vanitas spoke for him, gently nudging Ventus to the side and towards the bar. He took the hint and drifted over, ready to get started. Axel met Vanitas’s eyes for only a second before looking down as he laid his card down on the counter. 

“Probably the chai,” he hummed, and when Vanitas pushed the card back at him with a nod, Ventus felt _sure_ they’d just had some sort of conversation that was over his head. Despite his poor attitude, Vanitas had worked at their store longer than anyone except Aqua; Ventus had never thought about how that meant Vanitas had known Axel longer than any of them except Demyx. They didn’t really _act_ like friends. Were _they_ friends?! 

While Ventus was having his moment, Vanitas busily scrawled out the shorthand along the side of a cup from memory and then handed it over. Without another word, he turned and headed back into the back. Okay...he’d just go talk to Vani after making the drink. As he got to work steaming the soy milk, however, he couldn’t help but notice Axel as he stared at Ventus, almost inspecting him.

“What?” he demanded after another few seconds, and Axel blinked as if just realizing what he was doing.

“Nothin,’ my bad,” he muttered, dropping his eyes to the counter. “Hey, I forgot all my stuff at home. Mind if I borrow some paper?” This was a common occurrence, and Ventus was grateful for the return to semi-normalcy.

“Sure, lemme just-“ Ventus paused as he poured the milk, added some cinnamon as per the instructions on the cup, then capped it and handed it over. “I’ll bring you some.” Axel scooped up his drink with a nod and a smile, then wandered away and fell heavily into one of the lounge chairs by the door. Also standard. Maybe he _was_ just a little too messed up tonight. Maybe Ventus was losing his touch. He shrugged, scanned the floor habitually for any customers who might have entered unnoticed, and then headed to the back once he’d made sure there were none.

“Okay so...what was that?” he asked without preamble as soon as he approached the desk in the back that Vanitas had his feet propped up on. The raven haired man shook his head.

“You aren’t hearing it from me. Sorry Venty.” He didn’t look sorry, a smirk on his lips beneath closed eyes and hands behind his head as he leaned back in the office chair. Ventus stretched over him to reach paper on the shelf above the desk, and then felt a sharp downward tug on his shirt that almost pulled him down on top of Vanitas. When he shot a glare down at the man beneath him, he was met with the sight of Vanitas’s golden eyes sparkling with mischief and his teeth still holding a part of the fabric of his shirt between perfectly white teeth. Ventus retrieved the paper and tried to lean back, but Vanitas wasn’t having it, and actually _growled_ as he tugged on the fabric in his mouth, causing Ventus to lose his balance and fall to land with his hands supporting him against Vanitas’s chest.

“There are _cameras,_ ” Ventus hissed, struggling to get off, but Vanitas managed to grab onto his apron so he could free his mouth.

“You should know by now they aren’t recording,” he chuckled darkly, tilting his head to scrape teeth against Ventus’s collarbone. A shiver rolled down the blonde’s spine even as he pushed harder against Vanitas’s hold.

“Okay, but what if someone needs something, **boss**?” Vanitas released him with an eye roll and a pouty sigh, crossing his arms over his chest and resuming his ‘nap.’

“You’re no fun at work,” Vanitas grumbled, and Ventus laughed as he grabbed a pen for Axel, too.

“Yeah, but wasn’t me keeping you from getting yourself fired the reason you wanted to keep me around in the first place?” he teased, and felt his heart thump in response to the way Vanitas’s lips curved up into a rare, soft smile.

“Nah, but it helped your case,” he allowed, and Ventus headed back out into the cafe with a light heart. He’d actually momentarily forgotten Axel’s unusual demeanor until he went to hand the items to Axel and found him just staring down at a text box, hands unmoving in his lap as his eyes remained glued to the screen.

“Here you go,” he murmured, and Axel jumped slightly before looking up and taking the paper and pen.

“Ah, thanks Ven. I’m gonna run outside, don’t clear my spot, okay?” He ambled past the blonde, pulling cigarettes from his pocket as he went, so Ventus headed back to his post and shrugged it off again. He had a store to close down; he didn’t need to worry so much about Axel. The guy could take care of himself.

Axel was in and out a few times throughout the last bit of the shift, alternating between smoking on the patio and doodling on the sheet of paper while sipping his drink. When Ventus went to give Headphone Kid the five minute warning that they were about to lock the doors, he hesitated; Axel was still camped out in his spot. Vanitas seemed to know what his dilemma was immediately, because he stopped in the middle of changing out a trash can and walked over to Ven.

“Gimme your phone, okay?” He held out his hand expectantly, and Ventus handed it over with a frown. Why wasn’t he using his _own_ phone...? Vanitas did something with it and then locked it again before returning it to Ven’s back pocket himself. “Go tell the kid to get outta here. Axel’s gonna stay til the babysitter gets here.” Ventus shrugged. He _knew_ Vanitas had Demyx’s number, but whatever, maybe his phone was in the back. Ven did as he was directed, and then locked the doors with Axel inside and finished closing down with Vani. He questioned nothing; he should have known better.

A frantic pounding on the glass front door nearly scared him shitless. Without missing a beat, Vanitas casually strolled over from where he’d been fixing the blinds and unlocked the door with no hesitation whatsoever.

“Hey kiddo. What’s goin’ on?” No. He _didn’t._

“Where’s Ven?! What’s going on?!” Roxas sounded nearly panicked as he burst in past Vanitas and then immediately skidded to a stop, wide eyes taking in Ven, horror struck behind the counter, and then Axel, head hanging over the arm of the chair and staring upside-down at Roxas in confusion. _Vanitas._ He whipped out his phone to check his texts.

You: this is Vanitas. We need your help. Can you get to the store? Bring Ven’s car we came in mine.  
Baby-Bro: is everything okay?  
Baby-Bro: hello????  
Baby-Bro: I’m on my way

How had he not...Ventus swiped into his menu and saw his phone was set to silence all notifications. Damn it, Vanitas. He looked back up, glaring at Vanitas who was trying and failing to keep a straight face.

“I’ve got plans with your brother, and Axel needs a ride home.” Vanitas said this like it was the most obvious thing, but the rest of them protested loudly all at once.

“You dick, I thought something had _happened_ -“

“So you called _Roxas_?!”

“Hey, I can walk home on my own...”

Vanitas looked pleased with himself, hands in his pockets as he headed back to Ventus’s side. When he was close enough, he leaned in to whisper in Ven’s ear.

“Let him friendzone himself. Your brother’s not gonna have a thing for him after this. Thank me later.” Ventus rolled his eyes, but silently had to agree; Roxas was probably going to get a LOT of questions answered for him. Meanwhile, Axel had righted himself but seemed to be visibly struggling to figure out what to do, and his brother was fairing about as well. Vanitas finally shouted at them all to hold still, set the alarm, and then ushered them all out into the cold evening air so that he could lock the doors.

“Cool. Thanks again, kiddo,” Vanitas ruffled Roxas’s hair as he breezed past, heading for the darker of the only two cars in the lot. “Come on, Venty, we gotta get going.” Ventus lingered just long enough to give Roxas an appreciative smile and to shoot Axel a meaningful look before he followed after Vanitas. Once he’d made it into the car and Vanitas was backing them out of the spot, he turned to raise an eyebrow at the darker haired man beside him.

“We have plans?” he asked, voice thick with skepticism, and Vanitas laughed outright, taking one of his hands off the wheel to settle it on Ven’s thigh.

“We’ve had plans since you called me ‘boss’ while you were layin’ on me like that. Do me a favor and keep your apron on when we get to my place, mmkay?” Ven’s laughter bubbled out before he could help himself as anticipation welled deep inside him. That heat grew when Vanitas’s fingers began inching their way higher up his leg. This time, they weren’t on camera or in their workplace, though, so he really had no reason to complain.


	5. Roxas

“Fuck, Roxas, I’m sorry Vani told you to come.” Axel looked upset as he dug out a pair of cigarettes from a nearly-empty box, lit them, and offered one over to Roxas. “I really _don’t_ need a ride.” Roxas really didn’t know what to say or do in this situation, so he just accepted the cigarette from Axel and puffed on it.

He didn’t really know Axel well enough to know if the man was acting like himself or not, but...well, he supposed Axel had been having as easier time standing upright this morning. It was too dark to see him well, but maybe he was just really drunk? Should he try to insist? It wasn’t really his place...Roxas was so lost in thought that he realized too late Axel had mumbled something that he hadn’t caught a word of.

“Huh?” he uttered, like an idiot. Surely Axel thought he was an idiot. He drove here without knowing why to offer a ride that was declined and then stand here monosyllabic and staring at his ridiculously hot companion. 

“I just mean...it was cool of you. I don’t want you to think I’m not appreciating your effort when I say that.” Roxas blinked twice before he caught up; Axel must have said something about the ride, and not realized Roxas hadn’t heard. And was thanking him.

“Oh, no, don’t worry about it.” He smiled reassuringly at the redhead, who was now looking at him with a torn expression and eyes that seemed far darker than before. He couldn’t keep the stupid question from blurting out of him under the intense scrutiny in that gaze. “Would you like some company instead?” Axel blinked. Axel grinned.

“Can I pet your hair?” he countered, and Roxas giggled nervously. Why did that make him nervous? Was that a yes? He nodded, and Axel was at his side in one lanky step, sinking thin, _long_ fingers deeply into blonde spikes.

“Mmm, it’s so _soft,_ ” he hummed in a satisfied, low rumble that lit a fire inside Roxas which burned its way onto his cheeks. He could feel the warmth radiating from Axel acutely; it was chilly outside, and Axel was a furnace. He was soon inclining his head into the touches as the taller man continued carding slowly and carefully through his hair. “You’re really cute, you know that?” The hand in his hair stilled as Axel spoke, and then smoothed down the back of his hair as it slid to the nape of his neck. Oh god. Was Axel going to kiss him?! _Please_ let Axel kiss him. Instead his fingers played with the shorter hair, rubbing it the wrong way. “I gotta stop talking, I’m gonna get myself in trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Roxas bit his lip the second the words left him. Was he coming across as too desperate? Did his brother and Vanitas threaten him to stay away? Or did Axel mean he wasn’t interested and didn’t want Roxas to get the wrong idea? Axel looked away, taking a deep drag on his cigarette, but his hand dropped to Roxas’s shoulder, putting him into a loose one-armed embrace.

“You don’t wanna be my friend. Trust me, no one does.” The chuckle that came out of the redhead was bitter, and it would have made him think Axel was trying to gently reject him except for the way that warm arm tightened around him, pulling Roxas against his side firmly. His heart thumped unevenly, but a frown formed at the words.

“Don’t _I_ get to choose?” he mumbled, and Axel’s gaze shifted back onto him at the same time his hand slid across Roxas’s shoulder and stroked down his back. The blonde’s breath caught.

“What if it’s the wrong choice?” Axel sounded almost like he was asking himself, but his eyes were searching Roxas’s for an answer. The blonde swallowed hard. He’d been _wanting_ something to happen from the second he saw the man.

“I don’t think it is,” he insisted, and the hand on his back wound around his waist. It was like having a heated blanket wrapped around him; was _everything_ about him just extremely hot, or did he have a fever? The tips of Axel’s fingers found the seam where his shirt ended and traced the stitching there.

“You’re gonna regret that, I bet. Vani’s gonna get to murder me.” The words together made no sense, but Axel’s self-depreciating bark of laughter made him think his earlier suspicion about Ven telling him to back off was probably right. Roxas turned his face upwards, planning to tell Axel what an overprotective jerk Ven was, only to find himself looking up into Axel’s too-green eyes right in front of his...which were so dilated they almost looked black. Ohhhh no. The reminder that he was there as the _designated driver_ hit him almost painfully. Shit, was _he_ taking advantage of _Axel_ right now?

“I, uh...promise I won’t let Ven sic his boy toy on you. You _sure_ I can’t give you a ride?” He tried to shift away, but Axel clung to him and moved when he did.

“Don’t take me back,” Axel whined dramatically, tossing his cigarette away into the dark, lonely lot. “I don’t want to face reality yet. Do you? You’re...” He froze abruptly, and then slowly eased himself back. “You’re...” he tried again, but words seemed to fail the taller man, and Roxas felt intensely guilty for the expression that he’d somehow brought to Axel’s face. He smoothed it over quickly, stuffing his hands hastily into his pockets and putting on a smile that seemed paper-thin. “Ah, sorry, I say stupid shit when I’m fucked up. Don’t listen to me.” He backed up a few more steps, and Roxas was completely bewildered by what had just happened. Did he do something that had upset Axel?

“It’s fine, really, I didn’t mean to-“ Roxas rushed to explain, or to ask _why,_ figure out what he’d done, but Axel brushed it all aside as he pulled out another cigarette; Roxas hadn’t even finished his _first_ one.

“Nah, I’ll thank you properly in the morning.” Axel turned and headed off the patio and onto the sidewalk, calling back, “Get some sleep, Roxy!” Roxas watched Axel go, internally debating whether he should follow for safety or if that would be stalking, but since Axel only stumbled once or twice before disappearing from view, he let him go. As soon as Axel was gone from sight, Roxas grabbed his phone and burned the last of his cigarette in one huge drag as he began furiously typing.

You: I know you’re not dumb enough to come home tonight, but one of you needs to explain  
You: you guys suck

Then he went and got into Ven’s car with a heavy sigh. He cranked on the heat, longing to hold onto that warmth he’d just had, and began the drive back to the apartment he and Ven shared. Or _had_ shared, as Ventus now spent more nights at Vanitas’s place than theirs. Now, it was always empty. Maybe that was one of the reasons he so blindly jumped to come when Vanitas had messaged him. The memory of Axel’s smile flashed through his head, and he groaned out loud. Let’s be real here, if he was going to blame _anything_ on his loneliness, it should be how infatuated he was by the man he’d only met _that morning._ At _work._ He knew practically nothing about him at all.

Well, other than that he was a gorgeous artist who partied maybe a little _too_ hard, but was nice. And funny, flirty...did he mention hot? The dude was _hot._ Which reminded him of the man’s temperature, and dilated pupils...he didn’t have much experience with anything harder than pot or a little alcohol, but he felt it safe to assume Axel was on something harder than that. Was he okay? Maybe leaving him on his own had been a bad call...He audibly groaned again, pulling into the complex and finding a spot in the overcrowded lot.

The apartment was completely still and quiet; Roxas didn’t even bother turning on the lights. He shuffled his way in the dark through the living room and to the very short hallway with three doors. One for Ven, one for a bathroom, one for him. He didn’t need more than the faint moonlight that filtered in through cracks in the curtains to find his way to his door.

The glow from his computer monitor seemed bright in comparison to the rest of their place; he squinted his eyes against the light and dropped his stuff down onto his desk when he reached it. Checking the time, he realized that at best he’d be getting a handful of hours sleep before he needed to get up and ready to go back to work...wonderful. He wasn’t tired at all. But at least he’d get to see-

Okay, Roxas needed to get it together. Deciding on one more cigarette before going to bed, he fished out his own meager stash and then paused. They weren’t supposed to smoke inside, and Ven _always_ called him out on it, but...well, Ven wasn’t here. And it was cold. 

He went to his window instead and shoved it open, seating himself on his bed underneath it. After making himself a little cocoon out of his blankets, he lit up and stared out the window into the night, lost in thought. Most of those thoughts swirled around Axel and his encounters with the man, and once his cigarette had burned out, he stayed in place. It took a long time, but eventually he dozed off right there, wrist and hand dangling out the open window.

It felt like he’d _just_ closed his eyes when the sound of his alarm woke him. He felt groggy, and when he shifted, cold air hit him right in his warm face and woke him up fully. His arm and shoulder were absolutely _freezing_ and the open window had let out any semblance of heat that had been in his room, but everywhere that had been under the blanket was covered in a light sweat that chilled sharply when exposed to the air. Damn. This was not a good start to the day. 

He showered and dressed as quickly as he could, brushing his teeth while tugging on his Vans. He felt like _shit._ His throat was sore and his body was achy and weak, but he needed this job and he wasn’t calling out of his second shift ever because he was a dumbass who left his window open. He’d get some tea or something before his shift, sit and drink it and warm up, and then get to it. He could drag his ass through the day and then come home and sleep it off.

He caved on the car, though; he figured Ventus owed him a ride at least, even if it was unknowingly. So he grabbed his brother’s keys again and allowed himself the luxury of driving rather than boarding to work. But by the time he’d driven the short distance, he’d started sniffling. Great.

“Welcome to Starbucks!” rang out as soon as he pushed the door open, but the space from the door to the register was so densely packed that he couldn’t see the source of the cheerful female voice. It seemed _way_ busier than the day before had been. Fighting back an impending headache, Roxas drifted listlessly over to the end of the line and then waited for his turn to approach the register. 

When he got to the front, he was greeted by a girl about his height with wine-red hair and a bright smile. She took note of the apron in his hand immediately.

“Ooh, hey, you must be Roxas!” she exclaimed eagerly, drawing the attention of a different, blonde girl behind the bar.

“Is it nine already? Phew, these crowds are really making the time fly!” the blonde one sighed, grabbing the next cup in her queue.

“Oh, no, sorry to disappoint, I’m here early. Just wanted a drink,” he answered quickly, voice beginning to sound scratchy. The redhead gave him a sympathetic look.

“Oh no, is it the weather? I have a friend who always feels icky when it first starts getting cold, want me to make you the drink I make him?” Roxas nodded mutely, not wanting to expend the effort to chat with this girl, but she filled in any silence with cheery if one sided conversation as she wrote out a cup, and then gave him another grin. “I’ll show you how to mark it out when you’re on the clock. Let me know if you don’t like it, okay?” She then waved him away, already beaming at the man behind him. “Good morning, Steve! On the way to work, I see?”

“I’m Namine,” the blonde greeted him when he approached the counter for ready drinks. “I’ve heard a little bit about you from Aqua.”

“Oh, is she here?” Roxas hummed vaguely, hoping the conversation would end soon. That headache had really started to settle in. Namine sighed lightly. 

“She was, she ran down to a different store to pick up some product we ran out of. No one was expecting...you know, all _this._ ” Namine gestured loosely at the crowded cafe floor with a spoon in her hand. A noncommittal hum from Roxas was apparently enough to encourage her to continue. “Some trend on Instagram last night has _everyone_ in here requesting this weird, complicated drink.” Roxas nodded, not really understanding what her words really meant but gathering from her tone that it was frustrating. She smiled up at him briefly between her motions. “Get ready for chaos when you clock in. Here’s your tea.” Then she carefully slid a cup towards him. “See you in a bit!”

“See ya then,” Roxas mumbled back, grabbing the drink and heading outside again to sit on the patio. That was his plan, at least, til he realized a small gang of teenage girls were taking up most of the tables photographing their drinks. Oh, what the hell was this. Grumpily, he trudged past them to go sit on the crib, curling in on the scalding cup in his hands and lighting up a smoke. This sucked. Then he had the fleeting question of when Axel would show up float into his head, and wanted to slap himself for it. He was supposed to be getting his act together. What was wrong with him. 

The tea helped, but mostly it just helped him warm up. He still felt awful when he went back inside a few minutes before his shift was supposed to start. It was still just as busy, and he savored the relative stillness in the back room for a few seconds. Then Aqua, laden with bags and boxes, crashed her way in and brought the action to him. 

“Hey Roxas! Boy, am I glad to see you!” She laughed in a pant, setting things down on any surface she could. “Crazy day, we need all hands on deck.” She flashed him a smile and then began unpacking. “Can you clock in a few minutes early? I gotta get this stuff transferred in...”

“Oh, uh, sure,” he mumbled, opening up the program and struggling to recall his login that he had set up yesterday. His whole head felt stuffy, and now he was starting to feel _too_ warm. That was probably not good. He’d be fine, though, he just needed to get started. He’d be fine. How bad could it be?


	6. Axel

A desperate, almost painful thirst woke Axel the next morning, and his hand was reaching for the bottle of water he kept on his bedside table even before his eyes opened. He felt along a hard surface, but instead of finding his water, or his phone, or his Alexa, he hit something hard and...wooden?.. that shifted from his motions with a clatter a half second before something pointed hit him in the head painfully. _That_ got him up with a yelp, hand flying to red spikes to check for blood. There was none, thankfully, and when he looked for what had hit him, he found...his painting? It was laying on the floor alongside his collapsed easel... his paints, his phone, open sketchbook...he was laying on the floor of his art studio. 

He sat up blearily; water was still the priority. He only barely registered loose papers that had been stuck to him drifting to the floor when he stood and headed for the kitchen, which was the closest. He grabbed a glass, filled it straight from the sink, and chugged it completely in one go before filling it again. It took the edge off his desiccated mouth, at least. What had happened last night? He and Saix had fought, he’d had more X and they’d ‘made up,’ and then...he’d gone and bothered Venty and Vani at work, right. He drank the second glass of water more slowly, shuffling his way back into his studio to retrieve his phone.

He felt a weird sense of irritation thinking about Vanitas; more than usual, at least. Why was he pissed at Vanitas? Hadn’t Vani given him a free drink? Oh _riiight,_ it was because he’d called Roxas up to give Axel a rid- Axel choked and spat out his mouthful of water as the thought fully formed in his head. Shit! Had Roxas- no, he had vague memories of unlocking his door in the dark and cold, _alone._ He sighed, trying to reassure himself that even fucked up, he wasn’t stupid enough to do something like _that._

He scooped up his phone, but the first thing he saw was a message from Saix.

Moon Bae: call me when you get this

Fuuck, was _he_ pissed? Axel wasn’t quite ready for that. He went to tidy up the papers and paints he’d left all over. His watercolors? When was the last time he had even used those? Once he got them gathered, he took a bowl of dirty water he’d discovered to the sink to rinse out; clearly, he’d decided to paint last night. While he waited for the water to warm up, he decided to bite the bullet and call his boyfriend while he also had the task of scrubbing the dish to keep his hands busy. The phone rang a few times, and there was the brief hope that Saix was busy before the click of the line answering could be heard.

“Ah, there you are. Kept yourself busy after we finished, I saw,” Saix hummed, sounding perfectly benign. It immediately put Axel’s guard up.

“Yeah, guess so,” he laughed uncomfortably. “What’s up?” He heard Saix snort and drop the pretense of idle conversation; they both knew he wasn’t really interested.

“I have something to discuss with you that came up at work this morning. I’ll be leaving early and making us reservations somewhere for dinner, so try to be presentable and ready around five thirty, would you?” A silence stretched between them for a second as Axel’s mind raced. What was all this about? This was _not_ the usual routine. This felt like a trap. But...what could he say?

“Ooh, sounds nice. I’ll be there.” Saix made an approving sound and hung up, and Axel bit his lip. This was gonna give him anxiety all day. He _hated_ surprises from Saix. They tended to not bode well for him in the long run. He shut off the water, abandoning the bowl without ultimately doing more than fill it up with the running water, and went back to finish with the studio. Did he want to paint? No, his nerves were shot. He needed a smoke. Where had he left his cigarettes? 

He spotted them in the loose paper on the floor and went to grab them, off the top of his open but partially concealed sketchbook. Then he slid them to the side instead to look at his work.

He’d painted his sketch of Roxas. It was all greys and blacks except Roxas- his hair, his eyes, his apron- which was the only source of color. Fitting...he was the only thing that your eye could go to. It was nice; he hadn’t done anything remotely as cute in a long time. Finally, he took the sketchbook as well as the cigarettes and went out back. 

It wasn’t bad. He _did_ owe the guy a ‘thanks’ for putting up with him last night. He felt like the odds he’d said or done something stupid were pretty good. He inhaled deeply and blew out puffy circles of smoke, watching them be torn apart by the wind after drifting a few shaky inches. He needed to distract himself from the coming ‘conversation’ with Saix anyway. When he finished his cigarette, he went inside to shower and change.

Why was it so _busy_? That was the first thought Axel had when he approached the building and saw people milling about outside. The closer he got, the more he realized what he was seeing; it was flooded with like, high school kids and younger women. Was there some sort of event going on? Edging past three girls giggling around a phone by the front door, he made his way inside and to the end of a long line. Looked like he’d be hanging out for a while just for the _chance_ to talk to-

The second he caught sight of Roxas, he could tell something was wrong. He hadn’t looked like _that_ last night; Axel didn’t believe Ven would have let Roxas come if he’d been sick in bed. Vanitas, maybe, but not Ven. Why weren’t they sending him home?! Aqua was like, Work Mom, why hadn’t she noticed? Axel caught sight of her rushing up from the back, restocking in a dance around Roxas, Kairi, and Namine, and it clicked. This _crowd,_ it was too busy. She probably couldn’t afford to send him home right now even if she _did_ notice. How shitty. He refocused his attention onto Roxas.

Blonde hair, soft tufts that he could practically feel under his fingertips, was even more disheveled than usual and seemed limp. He was pale, slightly sweaty, and wore a smile that was so forced the guy almost seemed pained. Axel’s heart went out to him. Then it was his turn to step up to be greeted listlessly.

“Hey, what can I get for-“ he got out in a rough monotone before he looked up and recognized the taller man. Was he _blushing_ or was that his fever? “Oh, uh, hey.” Axel gave him a soft, sympathetic smile.

“A little warm?” he asked, sensitive to the fact that other customers might overhear. Roxas glanced to see the girls were all busy with their attention elsewhere before nodding a little. “You should get a big glass of water and hold onto it between customers. Aqua won’t mind.” Roxas’s eyes went wide before he nodded again, grabbing a cup right then and putting it in the line. 

Axel was about to ask why he wasn’t talking when he realized all his work-required conversations were probably killing his throat. And here he was, adding to his line of required communication. At least he didn’t seem particularly mad or upset, so last night couldn’t have been _too_ terrible. Did he hug Roxas? He tended to get handsy on Molly, but he would have behaved himself for the most part. Usually, he did. Roxas was looking at him sheepishly, he suddenly realized.

“I...sorry to disappoint, but I still don’t remember yours,” he rasped, and an idea hit Axel suddenly. He could be the hero here instead of just another customer Roxas had to deal with today. Yeah, he might be going out of his way more than a little bit here, but...this was becoming one hell of a distraction. He gave a disarming smile and winked at the blonde.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll come back when it’s calmer. I just thought you could use the break.” Then he strolled off to the side, making way for the next customer as he headed over to say hello to the girls. That done, he headed outside to get a smoke and to make a few phone calls. Maybe only one if he was lucky.

The phone rang. It rang, and he waited. If there was _anyone_ you could count on answering their phone at any time, day or night, it was Zexion. Sure enough and despite sounding like he’d just been woken from his sleep, Zexion’s voice came through, just as brisk and down-to-business as expected.

“Is everything alright?” Axel lit up, inhaling deep before answering.

“Good morning, Zexion. Demyx there, by any chance?” He snickered as he heard the blonde in question groan in the background; clearly Zexion knew what was about to be requested of him and was already starting to wake up his boyfriend.

“He is,” Zexion confirmed placidly, even as a loud yelp rang out over the line and then Demyx’s whining, drawn-out ‘why?’ followed. “What is it you need us for so _early_ this morning?” Axel snorted. The inflection was pointed, but he knew he was going to get what he wanted in the end, so he could stand a little cattiness along the way.

“Ask Demyx if he remembers the incident with his sitar going out to the bars with us a few years back?” He smirked in anticipation, waiting while he heard Zexion relay the question, then a scrambling, rustling sound preceded Demyx himself taking over.

“What do you want?” he hissed desperately, and Axel laughed wickedly. 

“I’m calling in the favor. Get up and put your boy back on,” he commanded, and Demyx handed the phone back over without complaint; this _was_ a pretty big favor he was cashing in. Then Zexion was back.

“Was that all?” he asked disinterestedly, but the fact that he’d asked at all rather than just hanging up told Axel he expected what was coming.

“Sorry, shortie, you’re not off the hook. Remember when I used Saix’s card to fix your busted tire and _axel,_ ” he had to smile at his own stupid joke, “after you and Demyx drove into a ditch while he was-“

“ _Enough,_ ” Zexion cut him off sharply, earning a gleeful but silent grin from the redhead, “What do you need from us?”

“It’s stupid busy at Starbucks and Roxas is sick and it’s so crazy Aqua hasn’t even noticed. I’m calling you both in to work.” Silence was his only answer, but he heard movement. Besides, those were both like, the biggest things he had on them. They couldn’t say no...he hoped.

“You’ve only known him a few days,” Zexion finally grumbled, but it was in defeat. “I trust you’ll be waiting when we get there?” 

“Of course. See you soon,” he sing-songed as Zexion hung up on him. Now to go tell Mom. He lucked out, catching her changing one of the overflowing trashes in the cafe. He sidled up to her, shaking his head and grabbing the bag to take out as she fixed the bin. “Aqua, you’re slipping.”

“What?” Her head shot up and scanned the store for whatever was out of place, and Axel sighed tragically.

“You’re usually the first person to notice when something’s wrong with one of them,” he informed her, jerking his chin towards the trio behind the counter. Even from here, Roxas’s attempt at cheerful was pathetic. Aqua made a distressed sound, looking at him and then the line in front of him. Axel kept going before she could really get upset. “Don’t worry, I took it upon myself to pick up your slack. Just this once, mind you. Called in Zexion and Demyx.” Aqua was quick. Just a second after her eyes had widened in surprise, they narrowed sharply with understanding. She may not _really_ know too much about him, but she knew enough.

“Why Roxas?” she demanded suspiciously, a protective tone to her voice. Ah, he hadn’t been expecting that one. He huffed, rubbing at the back of his head.

“He did me a solid yesterday, figured I owed him one,” he excused. It was true, even if it wasn’t the motivation. A tiny little corner of his heart felt guilty about his real motivation, but...he’d deal with that later, on his own. Apparently, it was good enough for Aqua, who just thanked him with a nod and resumed her work.

After dropping off the trash bag and with another look around the still-packed cafe, Axel decided to wait for his friends’ arrival outside and with another cigarette. Which, by the end of he was still arguing with himself about how he felt about Roxas, so it turned into two. Then three, as Zexion and Demyx still weren’t there, the place was still crowded, and chain smoking was better than thinking about what Saix had in store for him later, right? There he stayed until Zexion’s little white car pulled into the lot.

“We’re even after this,” Zexion groused the moment Axel approached them, “I had to call out of my internship hours for today.”

“At least _you_ were supposed to be off! I’m working a double now,” Demyx whined at the side of his petite boyfriend. Axel winked, showing no sympathy.

“Get all the complaints out now, I want nothing but sunshine and rainbows once you get inside.” He didn’t want Roxas to feel _guilty_ about this; that would be the opposite of what he was going for, here. The pair of them whined and complained, but ultimately followed orders once they passed through the doorway. Axel followed them all the way up to the counter.

“Hey guys, good to see you,” Aqua called out once she’d spotted the three of them. “Roxas, you can go home as soon as they’re on the floor.” Roxas looked up from between customers, seemingly bewildered by this turn of events.

“Huh?” Axel smirked widely, taking a step away from where Demyx and Zexion had disappeared into the back room and towards Roxas.

“The cavalry has arrived. They’re coming on to cover for you so you can leave.” Roxas still looked surprised, but nodded quickly. Axel waited while Roxas rang up another customer, then Zexion and Demyx walked up, both tying on aprons.

“Feel better, man,” Demyx offered sympathetically before taking the shorter blonde’s place in front of the register, and then with a nod from Aqua, Roxas _finally_ left the floor to clock out and get his stuff. As he stood there waiting, eager like a damn Labrador for Roxas to come out again, he was surprised by a quiet voice at his side; Zexion hadn’t moved away like Axel had thought.

“I’m here, but I want to object to this. Mostly on the principle of your order of operations.” Axel stared at him blankly, trying to look innocent while feeling like Zexion knew the things he was trying to pretend not to be thinking. But then Roxas’s blonde spikes were bouncing towards them, and he hoped desperately Zexion wasn’t about to sell him out. Luckily, the much shorter man simply glared at him and parted with, “Don’t you have something you should be doing first?” Roxas raised an eyebrow curiously at Zexion’s retreating figure, but much to Axel’s good fortune, chose to say nothing as he went around the counter to stand in front of the redhead.

“I’m guessing I have you to thank?” he asked, voice rough and lower than usual. Axel swallowed hard, trying to keep his thoughts on track. 

“No, it was my thank you for coming up here last night. Wanna let me walk you out?” He held up his pack of cigarettes to show his other motivation, and a little smile quirked the corners of Roxas’s mouth.

“Only if you’re sharing,” he said, attempting a chuckle as he walked past and led the way outside. Axel beamed at the attempted humor, following as he shook out...his last cigarette. Damn, he’d been needing to grab some...ah well. He could go after Roxas left. For now, though...he put it to his lips, dragging deep when he lit it before holding it out. Roxas accepted it before realizing that Axel didn’t have one for himself, and frowned a little.

“Last one,” Axel explained, and then, before he could help himself, “we’re sharing, though, right?” Red dusted Roxas’s cheeks but he just nodded as he took a drag of his own. This was a bad idea. Correction; this was only a bad idea if he _made_ it one. This wasn’t weird. How many times had he split a cig with Demyx and not been thinking about how his lips wrapped around it right before Axel’s? How he was about to be sharing indirect kisses with- see, it was only a bad idea if he let it be one. He shook himself, taking the cigarette back without a word as he put himself together.

“So, um...are _you_ feeling better?” Roxas sounded unsure of himself as he asked, and that made the redhead nervous.

“Yeah, I was fine, just went a bit too hard. I wasn’t too bad though, was I?” Roxas looked away quickly, even as he responded.

“No, no you were- you don’t remember?” He peeked up at Axel for a fraction of a second before looking away again; _had_ Axel done something stupid?

“Bits and pieces,” he answered carefully, “Is there something I _should_ remember?”

“ _No,_ really, it was- I was- um, I was probably not the most helpful, you didn’t even let me take you home.” Oh. Well, that was a relief...and definitely not something for Roxas to feel bad about.

“Oh no, I’m sure you were my hero,” he hummed at the petite blonde by his side, “that’s definitely how I remember it.” _This_ time when Roxas blushed, it could not be mistaken for a symptom of fever. Ah, reel it in, Axel. Don’t want to give him the wrong idea; or maybe instead, keep him from having the same idea. Especially with the way Roxas’s teeth were sinking into his lower lip as he came up with something to say.

“Let’s keep it like that, then, because I thought I seemed like an idiot.” Axel scoffed at that. That was definitely not the impression he was left with.

“I can assure you that ‘idiot’ is not one of the many, many adjectives I would use to describe you,” he purred, taking the mostly dead cigarette out of Roxas’s hand and stamping it out. He couldn’t help himself; Roxas should at least know he was awesome in general if Axel wasn’t planning to openly admit just how awesome he found the shorter man to be.

“Um, hey, so this is random, and...I’m gonna be pretty lame and sick, but...would you wanna come chill at my place for a while?” Okay, this was a definite ’no.’ Clearly, Axel should decline. It would _not_ be something he would want to be found out by- but Roxas was _sick._ This...could be totally a friend chilling and taking care of a sick friend. He’d do that for Demyx. This...was only a bad idea _if he made it one._

“Can we stop by a store really quick? I need to grab a few things,” he answered brightly, and the shy grin he earned from the blonde made his stomach flip. _Friends,_ though, that’s all this was or would ever be. That’s all it _could_ be. Just...maybe good friends. Really good friends. Super close friends who took care of each other and definitely didn’t have a little bit of a thing for the other one. That would work.


	7. Roxas

Axel was in his car. Okay, Ven’s car, but Axel was beside him in a vehicle that was traveling towards his apartment. His and Ven’s. Oh god, why had he done this? He knew the answer; he felt like shit and he was lonely without Ven and wasn’t looking forward to a day all alone in his completely silent apartment, but now he was sick _and_ nervous and trying to remember if he’d left anything embarrassing out. Was Axel gonna be good to play games or watch TV? Despite how much he’d _like_ to, he didn’t really feel up for more than just lounging around. Axel was gonna think he was _super lame._

They’d stopped at a store and Axel had insisted he wait in the car while the taller man went in, to return with a few bags a few moments later. Now they were pulling up to his complex and he was regretting his decision to ask Axel to come back with him. He probably had much better things to do than sit around with nothing to do and-

“You live pretty close to the store,” Axel noted as Roxas pulled into a space in the lot. “You may be even be closer than I am.” Roxas’s curiosity was piqued instantly.

“Oh, do you live around here?” That would be cool, especially since he very seldom borrowed Ven’s car and he was pretty sure Axel didn’t have one.

“Nah, I’m the opposite direction from the store, just about this far out.” He answered while getting out of the car so Roxas couldn’t see his face, but...if he recalled correctly, that was like, the fancy part of town, wasn’t it? Maybe not...or maybe they had more affordable housing that way that Roxas didn’t know about. There was no way Axel made that kind of money, was there? His clothes looked like they’d seen better years and had flecks of paint on them. Roxas was probably overthinking again. Deep in thought and heart pointing, Roxas wordlessly led the way to his door.

It was...mostly clean. The few days absence his brother had taken could be seen in the dishes in the sink and cans of soda on the coffee table, but it was generally pretty tidy. Axel bypassed the living room to head straight for the connected kitchenette, setting down his bags and digging a pack of cigarettes out of one of them. Roxas smirked and headed towards the back patio door, but secretly he was a little disappointed; sharing a cigarette with Axel earlier had been kinda nice. Once he’d lit a pair of cigarettes and handed one to Roxas, Axel gave him a side-eyed once-over.

“So whatddya feel like doing?” the redhead asked, like he was gauging just how poorly Roxas felt. He felt _awful,_ but the attractive man who’d actually accepted his offer for a sick hangout gave him enough nervous energy, he figured he’d be okay for a while.

“I have some games, or we’ve got Netflix, whatever you feel like. Sorry if I’m kinda lame to hang out with, let me know whenever you wanna leave and I can take you wherever, or back to Starbucks, if you-“ Roxas’s insecurities had gotten the better of him, but Axel interrupted his implosion with an easy laugh as he tousled Roxas’s hair.

“The last thing I want is for you to worry about any of that,” he chuckled, letting his hand linger in Roxas’s blonde spikes to card through them before dropping his hand. “Wanna hear my plan, then?” A small nod was the best a flustered Roxas could manage, but it prompted Axel to continue. “So, we finish these, then we go back in and I make you a giant nest of pillows and blankets in front of the TV, which you will watch from within the pillows and blankets while I make you some lunch. We can wing it after that. Sound good?”

Axel...wanted to...take care of him? Really? He didn’t really know what he was hoping for besides more time simply spent in the presence of the redhead, but this was way beyond even his highest of hopes. He looked up at Axel, unable to completely squash the butterflies that rioted within him at the idea. The taller man was looking out at the view from the patio, not at him in particular, but even from the side he could see the sincere smile on Axel’s face. And here he’d thought he couldn’t possibly be any more attracted to the man than he already was. 

He nodded again, giving a smile of his own and wishing that hand had stayed in his hair longer. No, but Axel wasn’t fucked up this time, was he? Roxas wasn’t sure if he was getting mixed signals or just looking for what he wanted to see in normal, if kind, gestures. They finished in a thoughtful silence and then headed back inside together.

“So, tell me where to find all the pillows and blankets you have,” Axel instructed, already pushing the coffee table to sit in front of the entertainment center to clear an open space in the living room floor. Roxas couldn’t help but grin.

“Start with the couches, I’ll go get the ones from my room.” Roxas left Axel to go search for more bedding, grabbing everything off his bed and some spare blankets from his closet before dragging them back. Axel wasn’t messing around; he’d taken off both of the couches’ cushions as well as pillows to make a floor and back wall. He took the things from Roxas without missing a beat, constructing a surprisingly well thought-out and put together lounge area while the blonde went to go raid Ven’s room. 

He didn’t want to touch anything on the bed itself, but his brother had a few extra blankets stashed in his closet as well. After finding those and another additional pillow tucked away, Roxas returned to find his living room lights off and his TV turned on and Axel already in the kitchen, which was bright enough that the living room was only dim at best. The space on the floor was all set up and looked ridiculously comfortable, and he spotted the remote lying on the pillow obviously meant for him to lay against. It was _perfect._ He added the others he’d found and then drifted over to the kitchen.

“Ah ah, to the cozy spot with you, Roxy,” Axel’s words halted him before he could enter the space, and he pouted a bit as he retreated.

“Oh, I’m being exiled to the cozy spot, am I?” he teased, though the scratchiness in his voice was notable in his grumble. Axel chuckled warmly as Roxas obeyed anyway, grabbing the remote before dropping down into its former spot. “What do you feel like watching?”

“Whatever you feel like. I told you the plan,” Axel called back, over the sound of cabinets opening and dishes rattling. Roxas huffed, put on some mindless competition show, and settled in to the cozy space. He realized how exhausted he was after pushing himself so hard when his body quickly went limp and his eyes started getting heavy after just a few minutes of that. The sounds of Axel in his kitchen and the low lighting was comfortable and soothing. It felt like he blinked and opened his eyes again to the sound of Axel clearing off the coffee table.

“Oh, no, I’m sorry, I’ll get those-“ he rasped, sitting up and going for the cans Axel was picking up, but the redhead breezed past him before he could.

“Nah, already done, see? But lunch _is_ ready so don’t go back to sleep just yet.” Roxas felt his face heating up; he hadn’t been _asleep,_ he’d just...whatever. But then Axel was back with two bowls and put them down on the coffee table before going back to the kitchen again. “Feel free to start, I’m just getting the drinks.” Sure enough, a second later he was back with an assortment of bottles and cans. “Water,” he began listing as he set things out in front of the bowl Roxas quickly scooted up to, “Sunny-D, Sprite...and the coffee’s for me.” The last can of what seemed to be some sort of coffee/energy drink hybrid was set in front of the second bowl, and then Axel was flopping down onto the cushions beside him.

Roxas looked at his own food in a bid to keep him from openly staring at Axel any more than he had and saw what looked like chicken noodle soup. There were chunks of chicken and celery and carrots interspersed with the doughy ribbons of pasta, and it looked _heavenly._ He looked over at Axel again in disbelief.

“There is no way I was out for long enough for you to have made this,” he accused even as he lifted his spoon to taste it and _man,_ it was good. Like, impossibly good, and warmly comforted his aching throat. Axel snorted, mischief sparkling in his eyes.

“Oh, but you were,” he insisted, leaving Roxas going for a few seconds before continuing, “Although I _did_ use a rotisserie chicken...and premade broth...and a precut veggie blend. And a bag of noodles. But there’s definitely something to be said for heating and stirring.” He said the last part with so much pride that Roxas actually snorted with laughter.

“It’s more than adequate, I appreciate it,” Roxas giggled, then proceeded to demolish the entire portion he’d been given. When that and half the Sunny-D had been consumed and Axel looked to be pretty done, Roxas draped himself back onto the pillow pile with a contented sigh. The only thing that could make this moment better would be if- A massive hand suddenly came down to rest lightly on his forehead.

“Still feeling warm?” Axel questioned lowly, having just stretched himself out into the spot beside Roxas. His palm felt cool against Roxas’s skin, and an involuntary shiver rolled down his spine.

“No,” he breathed, heart beating faster the longer Axel left his hand on Roxas. “I’m a little cold now, I think I’m having chills...” his voice trailed off when Axel sat up a bit and scooted closer, finally taking his hand off Roxas’s head only to throw the arm around his shoulders.

“So what’re we watching?” Axel asked, gaze and attention shifting to the TV as easily as if he’d done nothing out of the ordinary at all. Was Axel warming him up? Was he offering to cuddle? Roxas was tense, body stiff as he overthought for a few long seconds, and then he managed to get his voice working.

“Um, it- it’s just some dumb thing, we can change it if you want.” He felt Axel shift, laying back behind Roxas and leaving his arm settled against the blonde in a way that was probably not comfortable unless...Roxas swallowed hard. If he laid back, he’d be in the circle of Axel’s arm, which would lay down around him.

“No need, just fill me in,” Axel hummed, seemingly totally interested in the show and nothing else. He was giving Roxas the option to stay as he was, no pressure...just the invitation of his warm body heat and comfortable positioning. The apartment AC kicked on and Roxas shivered again underneath its faint, cool air flow.

“Okay, so, uh, they’re all cooking, right?” Roxas began, and then in a move he hoped came across just as casually as Axel was being, he leaned back to pillow his head on the taller man’s shoulder. “Then the judges come up with these crazy things, and they sorta have to work with them or against them to make whatever it is.” He kept talking, explaining the rules, and how the people on screen had been doing so far. Then the two of them fell into comfortable silence punctuated by occasional comments about the show. 

After a while like that, Roxas felt his body growing heavy once again. The subtle motions of Axel breathing underneath him, the warmth of his side... Roxas kept catching himself drifting closer and closer to laying fully against Axel’s side, but stopped himself every time. He didn’t want to fall asleep. Didn’t want to leave Axel stuck under him with nothing to do. Didn’t wanna waste the time with him. He wanted...

Roxas was asleep, cuddled against Axel and snoring gently, before he could finish the thought.


	8. Axel

There was something warm, _really_ warm, pressed against his chest. With a low groan against the idea of rousing, Axel curled towards the warmth, snuggling it against him and burying his face into it to block out the low light. It tickled against him, and no matter how much Axel tried to reposition, short fluffy things would tickle his nose or ears or...wait, what- 

Axel’s brain finally clicked on, and his heart jumped. _This was not his home._ Roxas’s...and when he looked down, he was met with a face full of blonde, spiky tufts of hair. But if he...oh god, _what time was it?_ With the arm that wasn’t under a sleeping blonde, he scrambled to dig his phone out of his pocket and click on the screen. 

Okay. Only a little after four. He was fine...but he needed to go. He didn’t want to wake Roxas; the whole reason he’d come was to take care of the guy, waking him up to drive Axel around seemed counterproductive. But when he looked back down to figure out how to move without moving Roxas too much...he hesitated.

Roxas was curled up against him, head pillowed right in the juncture of Axel’s shoulder and body. One of his fists loosely clutched at the redhead’s v-neck, and his lips were parted ever so slightly, and he just looked so- Axel felt warmth well up in him even as he tried to forcefully label the feeling as ‘friendly affection.’ Roxas was adorable. That was just a fact, not a judgement or _interest_ or anything. Now, the urge to lean down and kiss those lips til Roxas woke up...and joined in...nope, _that_ was definitely not passable as friendship and needed to be shut down.

It was a precise effort, moving without waking Roxas. He worked his arm free first, then slowly began easing his body to the side. As soon as there was space under Roxas’s head, Axel gingerly slid a pillow under it and then eased his shoulder away. Seeing the smaller man snuggling into the warm spot he’d just left behind was nearly enough to make him forget why he was leaving in the first place, but...Axel shook himself. Unless he was waking Roxas up for a ride, he needed to get out of there.

He tidied up the kitchen, putting the leftover soup in the fridge so Roxas could heat it up later and cleaning up the trash and dishes; well, so he left the dishes in the sink after rinsing them off, but close enough. He was just about to head out the door when he reached for his cigarettes and brushed the folded-up square of paper in his pocket. Oh yeah, he’d forgotten to give Roxas his painting. Then he had a great idea.

He dug around in the drawers in the kitchen until he came across a pen, then wrote out a brief note on it after checking first to make sure he would be writing on the back. Then he put the paper on the coffee table so Roxas would see it when he woke up and headed out, closing the door quietly behind him. 

Okay. About four thirty now. He had probably a twenty minute walk ahead? No problem. He lit himself a cigarette and began walking towards the main street Roxas had driven them in from. He vaguely remembered how they’d gotten there, but they’d gone to the store first, and he wasn’t familiar enough with this area to know a more direct route. He pulled out his phone again, planning on relying on good old GPS, but...it wouldn’t unlock? He clicked on the button a few more times until he realized it had _died._ Well...shit.

He pocketed the useless device with a frown, weighing his options. He could retrace their route to the store then the Starbucks and then back to his place, he’d be cutting it close but he could make it...or he could make his best guess and hope to find a familiar street, but would run the risk of getting _horribly_ lost. After another second and with a frustrated growl, Axel loped off down the road they’d traveled to get to the apartment. At least this way, he had a pretty strong guarantee he’d at least make it back before they were supposed to leave.

“Wow, Axel. Incredible.” Saix’s sarcasm bit into him the second he opened the door. _Fuck,_ was it that late? His eyes shot to the closest display to see it was five fifteen. So Saix was early, he wasn’t late. Either way, though...

“Don’t worry, I’ve got more than enough time for me to get all fancy for you,” Axel breezed casually, swaggering past on his way to the shower and trying to pretend he wasn’t sweaty and exhausted. He could feel Saix’s glare on him, but he managed to get away before his boyfriend could really lay into him. Then, after he plugged in his phone and took the world’s quickest shower, he scrounged up an outfit from the corner of their closet reserved for the clothes Saix considered ‘appropriate’ for him.

It was five thirty two when Axel came back out into the living room where Saix was waiting, clearly less than patiently. He was seated on the couch, arms and legs crossed as he looked pointed from Axel to the time displayed on their Alexa.

“I take it you’re ready, now?” Axel could see how hard Saix was working to keep from yelling at him about his tardiness, and that made him even _more_ anxious for whatever the other had in store for him. Usually, Saix would have no trouble verbally lacerating him before they headed out. He swallowed hard, nodding and forcing a smile before following the blue-haired man out to his car. 

No words passed between them on the drive there; Saix was listening to some podcast and Axel toyed around with his now-partially-charged phone. Roxas probably hadn’t woken up yet, didn’t even know he was gone...the random thought stung unexpectedly, and Axel tried not to let himself consider why. Instead, he pulled up Ven’s contact.

You: hey will u check on your brother later? He left work sick.

That sent, he flipped to open a group message with Demyx and Zexion.

You: thanks again. I know you only came in bc I made you but it was awesome of you guys to come through 

“We’re here,” Saix said almost there second he’d sent the message. He looked up to find his boyfriend staring at him and his phone. They had parked without his notice, in a reserved space out front of one of the nicer places around. “What is so urgent it’s kept you so focused on your phone?” The question was hard, conveying a command to answer rather than curiosity.

_It’s keeping me from thinking about-_ “Nothin,’ I was just texting Demyx and Zexion. Saw them up at Starbucks.” Saix rolled his eyes and opened his door.

“Of course,” the redhead heard him mutter as he rose from his seat, and Axel hastily exited to follow the man inside. They were quickly ushered to a private room by the waiting attendant, and then left with menus to wait for their server. Axel had no intention of starting this conversation, so he busied himself perusing the offered food until finally Saix started up.

“I wanted us to come here tonight to celebrate,” he announced casually, without taking his eyes off the menu in front of him. “And for us to talk about some things.” Axel lifted an eyebrow, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Celebrating?” he asked, and a smug expression grew on Saix’s face.

“Exactly. I’ve just been promoted, and several new opportunities have arisen.” Axel smiled genuinely at that; Saix had been working at that place for forever, it had to feel good to be recognized for all his work.

“Yeah? That’s awesome, Sai, congrats!” His voice was full of sincere warmth for the man he’d spent years at the side of, and Saix nodded at the expected praise.

“Thank you. Now, one of-“ Saix was interrupted by the arrival of their waiter, who took their orders and left quickly after that. Maybe it had something to do with the icy glare Saix pinned the poor guy with the moment he tried to begin conversation. As soon as the door closed, the blue-haired man resumed. 

“As I was saying, one of my new responsibilities will require me to travel occasionally. For starters, I’ll be leaving for a week the day after tomorrow. I’m going to have someone install some extra safety features on the home, so we’ll need to get alarm codes set up. I’d also like to schedule a time for us to connect daily so I know how things are at home...and with you.” Saix reached across the table to rest his hand on Axel’s. “Things will be changing, but we’ll also have so much more to gain. I’m hoping this will help repair some of the unrest between us.” His hand withdrew again before Axel’s reeling brain had even entertained the idea of reciprocity. 

Did it make him a terrible person for being _elated_ by this news? No schedule, no alarm, no one to keep tabs on his comings and goings or complain about his paints being all over and...no one to worry about who he was hanging out with. He’d have the place to himself. No shitty judgments or barbed comments or fighting. He smiled easily at the blue-haired man opposite him.

“That’s...me too. I bet that’ll be really cool, right? Home’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.” He watched as Saix’s eyes narrowed, but before he learned the reason, their drinks arrived. This time, the wait staff must have been warned, because they left the beverages and disappeared silently. Saix seemed to approve, lifting his glass of wine and drinking before he went on.

“Excellent. I’ll have the security company scheduled for tomorrow, so you will need to be there to meet them. I can leave you the car for emergencies, but if you’d prefer that, you’ll need to be the one to take me to the airport. And I’ll keep the routine services as they usually are, I don’t want to waste my time adjusting things.” He rolled his eyes as if changing their scheduled grocery delivery or whatever would be such a huge imposition. Axel shrugged, agreeing to it all. None of that really mattered to him in the slightest. 

Saix kept talking, and Axel tried to pay attention, he really did, but...part of his mind was already thinking about what to do with this unexpected freedom. Having the car was gonna be fucking _awesome._ He didn’t really know much about cars, but he knew the thing was gorgeous, and that sometimes the especially brave would approach Saix to try to talk to him about it. Their food even arrived at some point; Axel hardly noticed.

“Will you be able to handle all that?” Saix’s question snapped him back to the present moment, in which Saix was glaring at him from across the table with a raised eyebrow. 

“Which part?” he laughed, trying for humor, but Saix saw through him with a sigh. 

“I’ll leave out a schedule for you. Sometimes I wonder if you could survive on your own. You’re lucky I hold you so dear.” Saix’s smile was one of condescending pleasure, and Axel’s mood shrank instantly. So kind of Saix to remind him of his place. His shoulders hunched, and he suddenly took an interest in picking at his food with a fork. Saix didn’t seem to be done with him yet, though; now that the needling had started, he didn’t seem ready to stop. “You know, you’re like a housecat.” He couldn’t help himself; his eyes flicked up to take in Saix’s smug, stupid face.

“And why would that be?” He couldn’t keep the edge out of his voice, but at least he didn’t actually snarl out the words like he’d wanted to. Saix wasn’t fazed in the slightest. If anything, the smug smirk grew.

“You like to believe and act like you’re independent and do your own thing, but at the end of the day, it’s someone else feeding you and cleaning up your messes.” Anger and shame burned through him, and he put his hands, now shaking fists, into his lap. What a fucking dick. And still he went on, “You’re just as difficult as one, too. Speaking of, where were you that kept you out until it was nearly time for us to leave?” The sudden shift to dangerous territory had him scrambling as his defenses went up.

“Oh, I went to lunch with some of the guys from Starbucks and they left and I ended up walking back from some stupid far part of town.” Feasible. Vanitas especially was easy to imagine leaving him stranded at some random McDonald’s. Saix’s golden eyes seemed to pierce right through him. 

“Why didn’t you call to have me pick you up?” he asked, looking at Axel shrewdly, and the redhead had to resist cringing. This part was the truth, even if it sounded sketchy as fuck.

“My phone died, couldn’t even use GPS. Sorry, but hey, I made it in time didn’t I?” The naked scrutiny in his boyfriend’s eyes made him want to flinch, but he held his ground, putting an elbow on the table and resting his chin on his knuckles with a smile. Casual, cocky even. 

“Fair enough. But you were late for us to depart from home.” Malicious excitement sparked in his gaze, and Axel felt his stomach drop. He was pretty sure whatever that look meant, it wouldn’t end up going well for him. Sure enough, “Maybe you deserve to be punished when we get home.” Axel tried to shape his face into something resembling ‘interested;’ maybe Saix wouldn’t go so hard on him if he went along with it. Make it sexy, like it used to be, way back when...

“Oh yeah?” he murmured, giving his boyfriend a smirk, “What sort of punishment am I in for?” Saix laughed sharply and shook his head.

“You’ll have to find out later, won’t you?” he said vaguely before resuming his meal. Axel had too much anxiety to have much of an appetite after that, and left his plate mostly full when they left. Saix made no comment. They’d barely made it inside their own home before Axel found himself nose to nose with Saix as soon as he’d closed the door behind them. Axel hastily tried to stall the inevitable.

“Hey, can I grab a quick bowl before we-“ He never got to finish his question. Saix’s eyes gleamed as he growled almost predatorily before shoving Axel up against the wall. Axel was all for the rough stuff, usually, but...there always seemed to be a reason he wasn’t interested, lately, and this time was no exception. Saix didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen to rejections, however, and Axel was being manhandled into their bedroom and handcuffed to the headboard before he knew it. When he again tried to voice his request for a little bit of time, Saix gagged him. After that, the redhead just did his best to shut down and forget about it all.

Saix didn’t even bother uncuffing his boyfriend when he was done. Axel wasn’t sure if it was accidental or yet another petty punishment, but Saix had rolled over and gone to bed, leaving Axel trapped in every sense of the word. And after fighting with himself and then calling himself every name he could think of, Axel finally drifted off wondering if Roxas had seen his painting yet.


	9. Saix

It was the alarm, as usual, that first woke Saix. He clicked it off and then stretched languidly; last night had been quite thoroughly strenuous. Things were looking up for him. Everything was falling perfectly into place. With a slight smile on his lips, he rose and then glanced back at his bed.

Axel was curled awkwardly towards the head of the bed, sleeping hard despite his hands being held above his head where they were fixed in place. Ah, he hadn’t taken those handcuffs off, had he. Though Axel probably deserved it for one reason or other. A scowl grew as Saix lingered, caught up in his thoughts.

He and Axel had been close since grade school. Axel was forever at his side, mouthy and annoying but unrelentingly present. Over the years things had changed, and changed again, and again; Axel was erratic, but manageable. Even more so after he began regularly using and abusing a multitude of substances. Axel depended on him, needed him, irritated him, fought with him...but Axel was _his._ He sighed and went to uncuff the sleeping redhead.

He paused when he stepped on Axel’s discarded pants as he went. More specifically, on his phone, which lit up under his foot. Once his attention had fallen to the device, so too did his thoughts.

Where _had_ Axel been before they were supposed to go out? Was that friend of his still just as awful of an influence? A flicker of reservation about if he should follow through with what he was about to do flared, but that was easy enough to dispel; it was _his_ phone after all, that _he_ bought and put on _his_ plan. Besides that, he owned Axel every bit as much as he did the device. He unlocked the screen with the password Axel used for everything, rolling his eyes.

It seemed the last time Axel had seen his messages had been before they’d had dinner; oh, yes, that’s right- handcuffs. There were a few unopened text messages that he was interested in; the rest of Axel’s notifications were for things not worth his time. If he didn’t want Axel to know he’d been going through his phone, he’d need to make sure not to actually _open_ anything unread, but he could see the preview and decide if it would be worth showing his hand to view, and he’d be able to see opened messages and who Axel was talking to. This in mind, he clicked into the messages manually rather than selecting one of the notification alerts.

[ **Messages** ]  
 **’Zexy’, ‘Demyx’: a double, bro. I was there all d...**  
 **Ven: we went by his place after closing and we...**  
Moon Bae: call me when you get this

Hmm...nothing too unusual. He knew the names and faces of everyone Axel was talking to currently, at least. Most from his pastime of loitering around their local Starbucks. He rolled his eyes again, exiting the messages and clicking into Axel’s pictures on impulse. Most were memes, screenshots, selfies...nothing of consequence. _Good boy,_ he thought to himself, exiting the pictures and dropping the phone back onto the discarded pants wrinkling on their floor. He went to the headboard and freed the sleeping redhead, who did not move so much as an inch during the process, and then went to shower. 

He needed to remember to write up a schedule...and contact the security company...pack...there was much to do before he could depart for the exhibition. He could hardly wait. A week away, the conferences, the event speakers, the paid leisure time...and especially the penthouse suite with Xemnas, his superior. Ah, but he would have time for that soon enough; for now, he needed to worry about keeping his home the way he wanted while he was gone. Perhaps, if he was already scheduling them, he could tack on a few more additions...especially if he’d be leaving the car.

Saix finished his shower and emerged to dress and gather his things. That done, he went to his study and made a quick copy of the staff schedule and deliveries. He left that and a note to remind the redhead to remain available for the security company to come by, and then set both on their table before heading out to work. He called a security company on the way. After verifying his information and request for services, he was finally on the line with a technician.

“So what exactly are you looking for?” the man asked pleasantly but professionally, and Saix felt a smirk growing on his expression.

“I’m interested in a number of services, actually. An alarm system and home video surveillance, for starters. Then, I had a question about vehicles...if you could install a remote gps and video surveillance in one, specifically. And I’d prefer for the cameras to be as discreet as possible.” He heard an understanding hum and then the clacking of keys for a second. 

“We can manage all of that, and have someone available to come out to your residence as early as this afternoon once we have payment and approval.” Saix nodded, taking advantage of the slow-moving traffic to relay his card information to the man, and once that was confirmed, he gave him their home details.

“I’ll need to bring the car by after I leave work, however; I’m in it now on my way there,” Saix added, and the man agreed and made arrangements. That taken care of, they disconnected. The list of things he needed to accomplish before enjoying the perks of his new position was growing shorter and his anticipation was rising steadily.

Once he’d made it to his office building and taken the elevator to his floor, he headed straight for his superior’s office, knocking on the solid wood once in front of it.

“Enter,” a deep voice commanded from within, and a smile curled the corners of Saix’s lips as he obeyed. Xemnas seemed to have been waiting for him, lounging back in his chair with an expectant look. “Ah, Saix. Perfect timing, as always. Come in, won’t you?” Suppressing a shiver of excitement, Saix did as he was told, closing the heavy door firmly behind him.


End file.
